This project was initiated by the Energy Agencies in Denmark, Norway and Sweden aimed at identifying and addressing elements of the EN16510-1:2022 standard that currently leads to poor reproducibility of test results, when type testing Solid Fuel Local Space Heaters (SFLSH or ‘stove’ for simplicity) to CE-labelling. There is special attention on the batch operated log wood appliances (over pellets) as the performance characteristics of batch operated stoves are more likely to be influenced by different manual operational habits. However, some of the recommendations like the suction pyrometer and CO2 end of test criterion are technology neutral and can be used equally for testing of pellets stoves.
Here we use the term reproducibility to describe variability in test results, fully aware that there are two aspects involved, repeatability when conducting a series of tests within the same test lab and reproducibility when re-testing the same or an equivalent SFLSH at another test lab. This situation can occur in case of a market surveillance action, a round robin test (where the same stove is circulated among several test labs) or a proficiency test (where test labs are requested to conduct tests for benchmarking purposes and report results to a well-defined test protocol issued by the proficiency test operator).
The review of the EN16510 family of standards was initiated by CEN/TC295 in 2012 with purpose of replacing the former product specific room heater standards in the EN132XX series. This review was mainly justified by needs of upgrading the room heater standards following the Construction Products Regulation – CPR (Regulation (EU) no 305/2011) in 2013 repealing the former Construction Products Directive – CPD (Directive 89/106/EEC) from 1988.
The CPR repealing the CPD posed requirements on industry to declare the performance of their construction products with a Declaration of Performance (DoP) involving several Basic Work Requirements (BWR) and essential characteristics. The lack of these formats in the former CPD posed an increasing problem for industry, as national or regional building authorities began requesting updated Declarations of Performance.
Before that, the EN132XX series of standards replaced national room heater standards starting with the EN13240 standard for room heaters issued in 2001 and harmonized to the CPR in 2004 to allow CE-labelling of the room heaters.
During the 10-year drafting period, CEN and the testing organisation introduced several patches on the EN132XX series of standard, by means of decisions and interpretations made by the Group of Notified Bodies network, sector group 03 working group 02 (GNB SG03-WG2), which is a CPR framework under DG GROW.
However, in several cases, an outdated test option was failed to be removed, when a new option was introduced, which over time blurred the testing methodology, leaving several paths through the test for disadvantage of the reproducibility.
This project is about identifying and correcting these deficiencies, and further to suggesting improvements of the test, based on extensive experience with type testing among the partners DTI, RISE and SINTEF.
According to the task description DTI was lead on this task 1, however the initial draft was duly adapted according to multiple valuable contributions from RISE and SINTEF. Thanks for your commitment.