Energy and environmental impacts of energy related products: the case study of a device for reducing natural gas consumption in the production of sanitary hot water

The European Commission identified the Energy related Products (ErP) as products that account for a large share of the European energy and natural resources consumption. In order to reduce the energy and environmental impacts of ErP, the European Commission published the Directive 2009/125/EC, which establishes a framework for setting the eco-design requirements for these products. The above Directive represents a key component of the European policy for improving the energy and environmental performance of products on the market. In this context, it is of paramount importance to develop scientific researches aimed to assess the energy and environmental performances of the current products and define eco-design criteria for them. The paper presents the results of a Life Cycle Assessment study, developed according to the international standards of the ISO 14040 series, applied to a device for reducing natural gas consumption in the production of sanitary hot water. The device is selected as functional unit. The results of the analysis allowed the assessment of the life cycle energy and environmental performance of the selected functional unit and the impacts of each life cycle step. They can be used as an environmental ‘knowledge base’ for the definition of eco-design criteria of energy related products aimed at reducing the impacts associated to the life cycle. The research is carried out in the framework of the project “CRIM-SAFRI Creation of an Italian-Maltese research Centre for environmental sustainability and renewable energy sources” funded by the Operative Programme Italy-Malta 2007-2013