Council Directive 92/42/EEC of 21 May 1992 on efficiency requirements for new hot-water boilers fired with liquid or gaseous fuels

• Coming into Force: 03 June 1992
• End of Effective Date: 31 December 9999
• ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/1992/42/oj
• Published date: 22 June 1992
• Date: 21 May 1992
• Official Gazette Publication: Gazzetta ufficiale delle Comunità europee, L 167, 22 giugno 1992,Diario Oficial de las Comunidades Europeas, L 167, 22 de junio de 1992,Journal officiel des Communautés européennes, L 167, 22 juin 1992

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Council Directive 92/42/EEC of 21 May 1992 on efficiency requirements for new hot-water boilers fired with liquid or gaseous fuels

Official Journal L 167 , 22/06/1992 P. 0017 - 0028
Finnish special edition: Chapter 13 Volume 23 P. 0055
Swedish special edition: Chapter 13 Volume 23 P. 0055

COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 92/42/EEC of 21 May 1992 on efficiency requirements for new hot-water boilers fired with liquid or gaseous fuels

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, and in particular Article 100a thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (1),

In cooperation with the European Parliament (2),

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (3),

Whereas Decision 91/565/EEC (4) provides for the promotion of energy efficiency in the Community under the SAVE programme;

Whereas it is important to promote measures aimed at the progressive establishement of the internal market in the period up to 31 December 1992; whereas the internal market encompasses an area without internal frontiers, in which the free circulation of goods, persons, services and capital is assured;

Whereas the Council resolution of 15 January 1985 on the improvement of energy-saving programmes in the Member States (5) invites Member States to pursue and where necessary increase their efforts to promote the more rational use of energy by the further development of integrated energy-saving policies;

Whereas the Council resolution of 16 September 1986 concerns new Community energy-policy objectives for 1995 and convergence of the policies of the Member States (6), and in particular the objective of improving the efficiency of final energy demand by at least 20 %;

Whereas Article 130r of the Treaty provides that action by the Community relating to the environment shall have the objective of ensuring a prudent and rational utilization of natural resources;

Whereas it is appropriate to take as a base a high level of protection in proposals for the approximation of the provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in Member States and concerning health, safety, environmental protection and consumer protection;

Whereas the Council resolution of 21 June 1989 declares 'that the Community should take proper account of potential climatic change linked to the greenhouse effect' (7) and the Council's conclusions of 29 October 1990 state that CO2 emissions in the year 2000 should be stabilized throughout the Community at their 1990 level;

Whereas the importance of the domestic and tertiary sector, which absorbs a major proportion of the final consumption of energy in the Community, is considerable;

Whereas this sector will become even more important through trends towards more central heating and a general increase in thermal comfort;

Whereas better boiler efficiency is in the consumer's interest; whereas energy saving will be reflected in fewer imports of hydrocarbons; whereas reduction in the Community's energy dependence will have a positive impact on its trade balance;

Whereas Council Directive 78/170/EEC of 13 February 1978 on the performance of heat generators for space heating and the production of hot water in new or existing non-industrial buildings and on the insulation of heat and domestic hot-water distribution in new non-industrial builings (8), has given rise to the establishment of substantially different efficiency levels between one Member State and another;

Whereas the requirement of high efficiency for hot-water boilers will reduce the range of technical properties of equipment placed on the market, thus facilitating series production and making for economies of scale; whereas the absence of a measure laying down energy requirements at a sufficiently high level may result, with the completion of the internal market, in a significant drop in the efficiency levels of heating installations through the spread on the market of low-efficiency boilers;

Whereas local climatic conditions and the energy and occupancy characteristics of buildings differ greatly within the Community; whereas Member States must take this diversity into account when determining the conditions for putting boilers into service in implementation of this Direcitve; whereas these circumstances justify the fact that Member States where back-boilers and boilers designed to be installed in the living space are widely installed at the date of the adoption of this Directive should continue to authorize, within specific limits, the placing on their markets and the putting into service of such boilers; whereas these arrangements should be subject to particular surveillance by the Commission;

Whereas this Directive, which is aimed at eliminating technical barriers with regard to boiler efficiency, must follow the new approach established by the Council resolution of 7 May 1985 (9) which specifically lays down that legislative harmonization is limited to the adoption, by means of directives based on Article 100 of the EEC Treaty, of the essential requirements with which products put on the market must conform and that 'these essential requirements shall be worded precisely enough in order to create legally binding obligations which can be enforced and to enable the certification bodies to certify products as being in conformity, having regard to those requirements in the absence of standards';

Having regard to Directive 83/189/EEC (10) laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations;

Having regard to Decision 90/683/EEC (11) concerning the modules for the various phases of the conformity assessment procedures which are intended to be used in the technical harmonization directives;

Whereas boilers complying with the efficiency requirements should bear the CE mark and, where appropriate, signs in order to enable them to move freely and to be put into service in accordance with their intended purpose within the Community;

Having regard to Directive 89/106/EEC (12) on the approximation of laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States relating to construction products;

Whereas efficiency requirements to encourage the rational use of energy as laid down in Council Directive 90/396/EEC of 29 June 1990 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to appliances burning gaseous fuels (13) should be established for the gas boilers referred to in this Directive,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:

Article 1

This Directive, which comes under the SAVE programme concerning the promotion of energy efficiency in the Community, determines the efficiency requirements applicable to new hot-water boilers fired by liquid or gaseous fuels with a rated output of no less than 4 kW and no more than 400 kW, hereinafter called 'boilers'.

Article 2

For the purposes of this Directive:

- boiler: the combined boiler body-burner unit, designed to transmit to water the heat released from burning,

- appliance:

- the boiler body designed to have a burner fitted,

- the burner designed to be fitted to a boiler body,

- effective rated output (expressed in kW): the maximum calorific output laid down and guaranteed by the manufacturer as being deliverable during continuous operation while complying with the useful efficiency indicated by the manufacturer,

- useful efficiency (expressed in %): the ratio between the heat output transmitted to the boiler water and the product of the net calorific value at constant fuel pressure and the consumption expressed as a quantity of fuel per unit time,

- part load (expressed in %): the ratio between the effective output of a boiler operating intermittently or at an output lower than the effective rated output and the same effective rated output;

- average temperature of the boiler water: the average of the water temperatures at the entry and exit of the boiler,

- standard boiler: a boiler for which the average water temperature can be restricted by design,

- back-boiler: a boiler designed to supply a central-heating system and to be installed in a fireplace recess as part of a back boiler/gas fire combination,

- low-temperature boiler: a boiler which can work continuously with a water supply temperature of 35 to 40o C, possibly producing condensation in certain circumstances, including condensing boilers using liquid fuel,

- gas condensing boiler: a boiler designed to condense permanently a large part of the water vapour contained in the combustion gases,

- boiler to be installed in the living space: a boiler with an effective rated output of less than 37 kW, designed to provide heat to the part of the living...