Edesign is a set of European regulations that aim to improve the energy efficiency and environmental friendliness of certain products, i.e. to reduce the negative environmental impacts of their operation throughout the product's life cycle. It covers a wide range of appliances, from light bulbs to refrigerators, computers to heating systems, in short, almost all devices that consume, produce or transform energy.

For the product group of local solid fuel heaters, which includes fireplaces, pellet stoves, fireplace inserts and interior heaters with heat exchangers, the Ecodesign Regulation applies from 1 January 2022.

And what criteria must a wood-burning stove, for example, meet? These are the maximum emission values, namely for nitrogen oxides, organic compounds, carbon monoxide and particulate matter, prescribed earlier by the Environmental Protection Act, but also the minimum seasonal energy efficiency, which, unlike the nominal efficiency declared so far, better describes the efficiency of the appliance during its use in various modes, i.e. not only at rated power. The seasonal efficiency also takes into account other aspects of the operation of the heater, such as controllability or ancillary power consumption.

Closely related to the seasonal efficiency parameter is the labelling of heaters with energy labels (Ecolabelling). Each appliance is classified into an energy class according to its seasonal efficiency value, which is presented to the customer via the energy label. This gives the customer an easy overview of the efficiency of the individual heaters on the market.

And not only that. Manufacturers and importers are obliged to register the appliances they offer in the EPREL (European Product Database for Energy Labelling) database, where it is not possible to register a product that has not been certified or does not meet the ecodesign requirements. Every customer considering buying a stove or other appliance can thus check, thanks to EPREL, whether the product has been designed with ecodesign in mind and is therefore not only environmentally friendly but also sufficiently economical.