Marking heat pump quality in Europe just got easier – CEN HEAT PUMP KEYMARK introduced in the market

Product certification based on European standards is available via the CEN KEYMARK system since 1992. 1 has just up the number of product groups applicable for KEYMARK certification, as 11 manufacturers and certification bodies have created the scheme rules for heat pumps.

These rules are based on the efficiency and sound emission requirements of the Ecodesign legislation for heat pumps, combi-heat pumps and hot water heat pumps and are augmented by a set of criteria for factory production audits and quality systems.

In March 2016, CEN has accepted the scheme rules and since then, the CEN HEAT PUMP KEYMARK is available to the market.

The rules of the HP KEYMARK are based on European Standards. It is granted by empowered certification bodies.

Currently these are:

-        DIN CERTCO, Germany

-        VDE, Germany

-        SP, Sweden

-        SZU, Czech Republic

-        VDE, Germany.

Atlantic (France) and Stiebel Eltron (Germany) where the first companies to certify their products under the HP KEYMARK. “The HP KEYMARK is particularly helpful for those products, that we sell in the single European Market”, says Dr. Johannes Brugmann, head of development of Stiebel Eltron and member of the EHPA board. “We hope achieve mutual acceptance of the quality of these products across Member States and to avoid the administrative and financial burden of multiple testing and certification. A single certificate should be sufficient to be eligible for support schemes across borders.“ He is seconded by Eric Bataille, Atlantic’s Public affairs' group Director: “We strongly believe that a certification accepted by every member state will be very helpful for the heat pump industry.".”

The requirements to obtain the HEAT PUMP KEYMARK are strict. While the HEAT PUMP KEYMARK certificate can thus be more costly than some other certification or label available in European market, this makes sense, if the single certificate can be used to fulfil the requirements in more countries at once.

“Heat pumps are a European product – if they are sold in a single European market, Member States should accept a single certificate to check for quality. We can only encourage all national and regional administrative bodies to take this step.” says Thomas Nowak, Secretary General for the European Heat Pump Association, who has coordinated the development of the scheme.

Note to the editor:

The European Heat Pump Keymark is an ISO type 5 compliant certification system assessing product safety and performance according to European standards. All certificates are based on independent third party tests.

The KEYMARK Certification scheme is owned by CEN.

As of September 2016, it is granted by four (4) certification bodies. Tests can be performed in 9 empowered test institutes from across Europe.

43 certificates have been granted in Q 3 2016.

More information at http://www.ehpa.org