Certain household appliances to have new energy labels in Moldova

A string of household appliances and equipment will have new energy labels, in accordance with European Union’s regulations. The new rules are included in a draft approved by the government today.

State Secretary of the Ministry of Energy Constantin Borosan has said that these regulations would help reduce energy consumption in the residential sector, which accounts for about half of the country's final energy consumption.

The targeted products include refrigerators, local heating appliances, residential ventilation units, solid-fuel boilers, additional heating installations, temperature controllers and solar devices, smartphones and slate tablets. In addition, modifications were proposed to regulate energy labeling requirements for household tumble dryers, air conditioning units, ovens and kitchen hoods, water heating and room heating installations.

Similar regulations have been earlier were approved for 18 other energy-impacting products, according to the new European Union energy labels, which express the energy efficiency class on a scale from A to G.

The Ministry of Energy said that these labels would facilitate the faster integration of household appliances into the EcoVoucher programme, launched last year. According to experts, replacing energy-inefficient appliances will lead, among other things, to a significant cutting in greenhouse gas emissions, estimated to decrease by 268 thousand tons of CO2 in Moldova.

Equipment imported into Moldova, most of which is meant for the European Union’s market, already comes with energy labels and local distributors will not incur additional costs for these changes, authorities say.