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Thermostatic and Balancing Valves – un update from CEIR

Tuesday 11 December 2018

Buildings in Europe account for around 40% of energy consumption. The use of thermostatic valves in heating systems allows a greater amount thermal balance not only within a single living unit, but in the whole building leading to energy savings in some cases equal to 20%. In the case of centralized systems, the use of balancing valves coupled with the presence of thermostatic valves, makes it possible to further increase the efficiency of the plant with a significant saving of the order of 15%.

Thermostatic valves and balancing valves are technologies that characterize the industry represented by CEIR; this is why the association has set up a special working group to follow the legislative and legislative work for these products in Europe and at national level.

2017 was characterized by the revision work of the EPBD Directive (published in the official journal last June); now CEIR's efforts are focused on completing the works for the new version of EN 215, the technical reference for the production of thermostatic valves. The revision of EN 215 has been under way since 2015 and, after a long technical work within CEN, the work item is now in public inquiry which, if completed successfully, will lead to the publication of the new edition of the standard in early 2019.

The main topic discussed by the experts is how to correctly define the performances of the thermostatic valves in terms of energy efficiency. The solution identified is the correct definition of the CA value, which is the control accuracy of thermostatic radiator valves, consisting of the combination of thermostatic head with thermostatic valve body (in K). The CA value expresses average excess room temperature during the heating season caused by product control accuracy. The CA value can be used for energy performance calculations of buildings using EN 15316-2.

The public inquiry will end in December and, hopefully, with a positive result that will allow us to work on the next important step for the industry represented by CEIR: standardizing the labeling systems today existing in Europe on the basis of the new edition of the EN 215.

In addition to the completion of the works for the new edition of EN 215, the CEIR work program for 2019 will cover the following topics: to follow the national implementation of the revised EPBD, to define (through technical notebooks) common technical specifications for the regulation and use in Europe of balancing valves; to strengthen cooperation with strategic European associations.

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