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VdZ is the leading association of the building services sector representing the interests of the entire value chain of the heating and building services industry - from suppliers to wholesale and installers. The sector association established a solution for the implementation of the obligations that result from the Commission Delegated Regulation 811/2013 and 812/2013 regarding energy labeling of space heaters, water heaters and hot water storage tanks. 

Along with VdZ members, the project is supported by the German Association of Construction Software (BVBS), the German Solar Industrial Association (BSW), the German Association of Heat Pumps (BWP), German Energy Wood and Pellet Association (DEPV) as well as the ARGE Neue Medien. 

In order to substantiate the necessity of an appropriate IT-solution, in the following the new obligations will be presented briefly. 

Obligations 

Since 2015, new information requirements affect all bids regarding space heaters, water heaters and hot water storage tanks. Installers, being the point of sale, are obliged to provide the customer with information regarding the efficiency of the system along with the initial bid. Since 2017, these regulations have also applied to solid fuel boilers. 

The information must be supplied in the form of a datasheet and an energy efficiency label, also called “product label”. In the simplest case (1), this implies attaching the supplier’s product -specific document to the bid. However, for composite heating systems, i.e. packages of the aforementioned products combined with controls and/or solar devices, a “package label” are required. Then, the installer needs to prepare an individual data sheet and derive the energy efficiency label (2). 

Even in the simplest case, the installer needs access to the product datasheet and the “product label” while preparing the bid. (The documents and information enclosed to the product are of no assistance, since they are not available until after the bid has been prepared.) 

In most cases, installers also offer composite heating systems (2). If the composite heating system is delivered directly by a supplier, the “package label” might already be included. If the composite heating system consists of components from different suppliers, to prepare the bid the installer requires the following: product data sheet and label of the main space heater, a blank “additional datasheet” and a blank label of the composite system as well as the datasheets of the additional components (solar devices and/or controls). To complete the “additional datasheet”, the installer extracts the relevant information from the respective product datasheets. The result is transferred to the blank energy efficiency label of the composite heating system. 

VdZ-Platform HEATINGlabel 

Since the manual preparation of the “package label” by the installer would imply a substantial work effort, the industry is going for an IT-based solution, i.e. a central database with a connection to wholesale shop systems and installer software. 

To establish this database, suppliers feed relevant data for the calculation of the package label into the VdZ-portal. The data is added via simple Excel sheets. The effort required from the supply-side is therefore minor. The portal’s calculation tool then generates the package label from the individual data. 

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The portal then makes the data available to the relevant recipients via different interfaces, i.e. web services. The data can be retrieved as an individually generated label, e.g. via a commercial installer software. This process is enabled by the data interface “IDS-Connect”, an established interface solution for communication between installer software and databases in Germany. Particularly this connection is of essential importance, since approx. 90% of craft businesses use commercial software. When preparing the bid proposal, the software will automatically issue the package label as an extra page. Also, the individual usage of the portal by the installer is possible. 

The advantages: 

• Open Platform: Product data from all suppliers active on the German market can be included and the database can be connected to any software. 

• Suppliers of both systems and components profit equally. 

• Simple input via Excel sheets. 

• Implementation for commercial software systems. To fulfil label guideline, label calculation is required during phase of bid proposal, i.e., in the commercial context. 

• No additional effort for software producers due to application of established IDS-Connect interface. 

• High market penetration is expected; open platform; usage free of charge for installers, wholesale and their software suppliers 

• The solution addresses the German market but can be open for EU-wide use, if there is a significant demand. 

Contact

VdZ – Wirtschaftsvereinigung Gebäude und Energie e.V.

Oranienburger Straße 3 • 10178 Berlin • Germany 

info@vdzev.de• Tel. 030 / 27874408-0 • http://www.vdzev.de • http://www.heizungslabel.de