As part of the review of existing measures, the EU’s Preparatory Study of household refrigeration products has just published its interim report. This particular study started in January this year and is expected to finish in November.

Its objectives were to evaluate any advances in technology for this product category and to consider the verification tolerances in the current legislation. The study is also assessing whether wine storage appliances warrant minimum efficiency standards under Ecodesign in line with other refrigeration products.

The new IEC standard 62552:2015 is seen as offering an opportunity to redesign the current requirements. It had also been suggested that other, non-energy, aspects be included, but while the study team has identified this product group as offering scope for reducing food waste, they see zero impact (or even detriment) for measures to prolong product life and improve reparability or recycling.