Commission Regulation (EU) No 932/2012Show full title

Article 1 Subject matter and scope

1. This Regulation establishes ecodesign requirements for the placing on the market of electric mains-operated and gas-fired household tumble driers and built-in household tumble driers, including those sold for non-household use.

2. This Regulation shall not apply to household combined washer-driers and household spin-extractors.

Article 2 Definitions

In addition to the definitions set out in Article 2 of Directive 2009/125/EC, the following definitions shall apply for the purpose of this Regulation:

(1)

‘household tumble drier’ means an appliance in which textiles are dried by tumbling in a rotating drum through which heated air is passed and which is designed to be used principally for non-professional purposes;

(2)

‘built-in household tumble drier’ means a household tumble drier intended to be installed in a cabinet, a prepared recess in a wall or a similar location, requiring furniture finishing;

(3)

‘household combined washer-drier’ means a household washing machine which includes both a spin extraction function and also a means for drying the textiles, usually by heating and tumbling;

(4)

‘household spin-extractor’, also known commercially as ‘spin-drier’, means an appliance in which water is removed from the textiles by centrifugal action in a rotating drum and drained through an automatic pump and which is designed to be used principally for non-professional purposes;

(5)

‘air-vented tumble drier’ means a tumble drier that draws in fresh air, passes it over the textiles and vents the resulting moist air into the room or outside;

(6)

‘condenser tumble drier’ means a tumble drier which includes a device (either using condensation or any other means) for removing moisture from the air used for the drying process;

(7)

‘automatic tumble drier’ means a tumble drier which switches off the drying process when a certain moisture content of the load is detected, for example through conductivity or temperature sensing;

(8)

‘non-automatic tumble drier’ means a tumble drier which switches off the drying process after a predefined period, usually controlled by a timer, but which may also be manually switched off;

(9)

‘programme’ means a series of operations that are predefined and which are declared by the manufacturer as suitable for drying certain types of textile;

(10)

‘cycle’ means a complete drying process, as defined for the selected programme;

(11)

‘programme time’ means the time that elapses from the initiation of the programme until the completion of the programme, excluding any end-user programmed delay;

(12)

‘rated capacity’ means the maximum mass in kilograms, indicated by the manufacturer in 0,5 kilogram increments of dry textiles of a particular type, which can be treated in a household tumble drier with the selected programme, when loaded in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions;

(13)

‘partial load’ means half of the rated capacity of a household tumble drier for a given programme;

(14)

‘condensation efficiency’ means the ratio between the mass of moisture condensed by a condenser tumble drier and the mass of moisture removed from the load at the end of a cycle;

(15)

‘off-mode’ means a condition where the household tumble drier is switched off using appliance controls or switches accessible to and intended for operation by the end-user during normal use to attain the lowest power consumption that may persist for an indefinite time while the household tumble drier is connected to a power source and used in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions; where there is no control or switch accessible to the end-user, ‘off-mode’ means the condition reached after the household tumble drier reverts to a steady-state power consumption on its own;

(16)

‘left-on mode’ means the lowest power consumption mode that may persist for an indefinite time after completion of the programme without any further intervention by the end-user besides unloading of the household tumble drier;

(17)

‘equivalent household tumble drier’ means a model of household tumble drier placed on the market with the same rated capacity, technical and performance characteristics, energy consumption, condensation efficiency where relevant, standard cotton programme time and airborne acoustical noise emissions during drying as another model of household tumble drier placed on the market under a different commercial code number by the same manufacturer.

(18)

‘standard cotton programme’ means the cycle which dries cotton laundry with an initial moisture content of the load of 60 % up to a remaining moisture content of the load of 0 %.

Article 3 Ecodesign requirements

The generic ecodesign requirements for household tumble driers are set out in point 1 of Annex I. The specific ecodesign requirements for household tumble driers are set out in point 2 of Annex I.

No ecodesign requirement is necessary regarding any other ecodesign parameter referred to in Annex I, Part 1, of Directive 2009/125/EC.

Article 4 Conformity assessment

1. The conformity assessment procedure referred to in Article 8 of Directive 2009/125/EC shall be the internal design control set out in Annex IV to that Directive or the management system set out in Annex V to that Directive.

2. For the purposes of conformity assessment pursuant to Article 8 of Directive 2009/125/EC, the technical documentation shall include a copy of the calculations set out in Annex II to this Regulation.

Where the information included in the technical documentation for a particular household tumble drier model has been obtained by calculation on the basis of design or by extrapolation from other equivalent household tumble driers, or both, the technical documentation shall include details of such calculations or extrapolations, or both, and of tests undertaken by manufacturers to verify the accuracy of the calculations undertaken. In such cases, the technical documentation shall also include a list of all other equivalent household tumble drier models where the information included in the technical documentation was obtained in the same way.

Article 5 Verification procedure for market surveillance purposes

Member States shall apply the verification procedure described in Annex III to this Regulation when performing the market surveillance checks referred to in Article 3(2) of Directive 2009/125/EC for compliance with requirements set out in Annex I to this Regulation.

Article 6 Benchmarks

The indicative benchmarks for best-performing household tumble driers available on the market at the time of entry into force of this Regulation are set out in Annex IV.

Article 7 Revision

The Commission shall review this Regulation in the light of technological progress no later than five years after its entry into force and present the result of that review to the Ecodesign Consultation Forum. The review shall in particular assess the verification tolerances set out in Annex III and the efficiency of air-vented appliances.

Article 8 Entry into force and application

1. This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

2. It shall apply from 1 November 2013.

However:

(a) the generic ecodesign requirements set out in points 1.1 and 1.2 of Annex I shall apply from 1 November 2014;

(b) the specific ecodesign requirements set out in point 2.2 of Annex I shall apply from 1 November 2015.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Brussels, 3 October 2012.

For the Commission

The President

José Manuel Barroso