The results of Atlete II project (Washing Machines Appliance Testing for Energy Label & Eco-design Evaluation) were recently presented in Milan during a meeting that saw also the participation of Ceced Italia, Candy and Imq (Italian certification body, operating in conformity assessments and laboratory tests for the electrical, electronic, gas and energy industries). The project, promoted and co-funded by the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme of the European Commission, has randomly tested 50 washing machines to verify their compliance with energy labelling and eco-design legislation requirements. Testing has focused not only on pure technical parameters but also energy label declarations, information provided to consumers in instruction booklets and any other mandatory product information that is provided to consumers. Specific models were chosen for testing via a transparent selection process involving all known manufacturers and conducted by a notary. Appliances were selected on the basis of the company’s market share and the product’s availability in specific markets. The following parameters were tested: energy consumption, water consumption, washing performance, spinning performance, spin speed, load capacity, power consumption and duration of off-mode and left-on mode, eco-design minimum requirements, product specific requirements and information requirements.
The identified results were: 100% compliance rate with the energy efficiency class and energy consumption declarations for the energy label; 100% compliance rate with energy and water consumption eco-design minimum requirements; 92% overall compliance rate for functional performance class and parameters; 84% overall compliance of the product fiche and ecodesign-requested information availability and proper format; 64% compliance with the requirement to indicate the standard programme on the machine; 38% compliance rate for the ecodesign-requested information to be provided in the booklet of instructions; 30% overall compliance rate when including all individual parameters.
A number of models have not passed the verification procedure set by the project: the results were immediately communicated to market surveillance Authorities where the appliances were available for purchase, and a number of models were made compliant through a remedy action by individual manufacturers.
Atlete II is a multi-partner project with eleven project consortium members. The consortium consists of energy agencies, the household appliance manufacturer association Ceced, market surveillance authority, consumer organisations, university and independent experts.
