Commercial refrigeration equipment – product category rules
An initiative to create a standard that defines product category rules (PCR) to complement the testing of commercial refrigerated cabinets has been in progress for a while. The draft standard is now at a stage in development when agreement is being sought to progress the document to the enquiry stage. This will provide a means to submit any technical comments.
The PCR will cover the whole life cycle of commercial refrigeration systems from cradle to grave. This will cover all staged from production (raw materials, transport, manufacturing), construction/processing (transport, construction/installation), usage (use, maintenance, repair, replacement, refurbishment, operational energy use, operational water use) to end of life (deconstruction/demolition, transport, waste processing, disposal). The draft standard specifies the process and requirements on how to conduct an environmental product declaration (EPD). An EPD is a verified, standardised document that reports the quantified environmental impacts of a product across its entire life cycle based on a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).
The overall aim of the PCR is to provide advice and rules to simplify the production of EPDs and to provide a level playing field to compare products.The work is broadly based on a Eurovent document (Eurovent document).
The product category rules apply to the following cabinets:
- Plug-in integral cabinets.
- Remote cabinets.
- Saladettes.
- Serve-over counters.
- Ice cream freezers.
- Commercial beverage coolers.
The draft standard details aspects such as:
- Product identification, functional and declared units and reference service life.
- Category rules across the product life cycle stages and how these are applied.
- Refrigerant usage across the lifecycle stages.
As part of the usage stage, the operational energy consumption is based on default use conditions specified in test standards and which are also used for energy labelling and eco-design (Regulations (EU) 2019/2024 and (EU) 2019/2018). The relevant standards that are applicable are:
- EN ISO 23953-1:2023; EN ISO 23953-2:2023 for supermarket applications
- EN ISO 22043:2020 for ice cream freezers
- EN ISO 22044:2022 for commercial beverage coolers
- EN 16838:2024 for gelato scooping cabinets
- IEC 63252:2020 for refrigerated vending machines.
At RD&T we can help interpret the new PCR and help with the operational energy consumption assessment. If you would like further information, please get in touch with Judith Evans (j.a.evans@rdandt.co.uk).