EN    EN  
 EUROPEAN COMMISSION 
Brussels, 26.4.2011 
C(2011) YYY final 
  
COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) No …/.. 
of 26.4.2011 
implementing Directive 2009/125/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council 
with regard to ecodesign requirements for household tumble driers 
(Text with EEA relevance) 
  
EN 1   EN COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) No …/.. 
of  
implementing Directive 2009/125/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council 
with regard to ecodesign requirements for household tumble driers 
(Text with EEA relevance) 
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION, 
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Having regard to Directive 2009/125/EC of the Eu ropean Parliament and of the Council of 21 
October 2009 establishing a framework for th e setting of ecodesign requirements for energy-
related products
1, and in particular Article 15(1) thereof, 
After consulting the Ecodes ign Consultation Forum, 
Whereas: (1) Under Directive 2009/125/EC, ecodesi gn requirements should be set by the 
Commission for energy-related products re presenting significant vo lumes of sales and 
trade, having significant environmental imp act and presenting significant potential for 
improvement in terms of thei r environmental impact withou t entailing excessive costs. 
(2) Article 16(2)(a) of Directive 2009/125/EC  provides that the Commission should, as 
appropriate, introduce an implementing meas ure for domestic appliances, including 
household tumble driers. 
(3) The Commission has carried out a prep aratory study to analyse the technical, 
environmental and economic aspects of household tumble driers typically used in households. The study has been developed toge ther with stakeholders and interested 
parties from the Union and third countries, and the results have been made publicly 
available. 
(4) This Regulation should cover products designed for drying laundry in households. 
(5) Household combined washer-driers have  particular characteristics and should 
therefore be exempted from the scope of this Regulation.  
(6) The environmental aspect of household tumble  driers, identified as  significant for the 
purposes of this Regulation, is energy c onsumption in the use phase. The annual 
                                                
 
1 OJ L 285, 31.10.2009, p. 10.  
EN 2   EN electricity consumption of household tumble driers is estimated to have been 21 TWh 
in the European Union in 2005. Unless specific  measures are taken,  annual electricity 
consumption is predicted to be 31 TWh in  2020. The preparatory study shows that the 
energy consumption of products subject to  this Regulation can be significantly 
reduced. 
(7) The preparatory study shows that requireme nts regarding other ecodesign parameters 
as referred to in Annex I, Part 1, to Directive 2009/125/EC are not necessary, as the 
energy consumption of household tumble drie rs in the use phase is by far the most 
important environmental aspect. In accord ance with Article 6(2) of Directive 
2009/125/EC, Member States shall not prohib it, restrict or impede the placing on the 
market and/or putting into serv ice, within their territories , of household tumble driers 
on grounds of ecodesign requirements relating to those ecodesign parameters referred 
to in Annex I, Part 1, of that Directive for which this Regulation provides that no ecodesign requirement is necessary. 
(8) The energy consumption of household tumble driers should be made  more efficient by 
applying existing non-proprieta ry cost-effective technolo gies that can reduce the 
combined costs of purchasing and operating those products. 
(9) The ecodesign requirements should not affect functionality from the end-user’s 
perspective and should not negatively affect health, safety or the environment. In 
particular, the benefits of  reducing energy consumption during the use phase should 
more than offset any additional envir onmental impacts during the production and 
disposal phases. 
(10) The ecodesign requirements should be in troduced gradually in order to provide a 
sufficient timeframe for manufacturers to re design products subject to this Regulation. 
The timing should be such as to avoid ne gative impacts on th e functionalities of 
equipment on the market, and to take into  account cost impacts for end-users and 
manufacturers, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises, while ensuring 
timely achievement of the objec tives of this Regulation.  
(11) Measurements of the relevant product pa rameters should be performed using reliable, 
accurate and reproducible measurement methods which take into account the recognised state-of-the-art measuremen t methods including, where available, 
harmonised standards adopted by the European  standardisation bodie s, as listed in 
Annex I to Directive 98/34/EC  of the European Parliame nt and of the Council of 22 
June 1998 laying down a procedure for the pr ovision of information in the field of 
technical standards and regulations and of  rules on Information Society services
2. 
(12) In accordance with Article 8 of Direc tive 2009/125/EC, this Regulation should specify 
the applicable conformity assessment procedures. 
(13) In order to facilitate compliance checks,  manufacturers should provide information in 
the technical documentation referred to in Annexes V and VI to Directive 2009/125/EC insofar as that information relate s to the requirements laid down in this 
Regulation. 
                                                
 
2 OJ L 204, 21.7.1998, p. 37.  
EN 3   EN (14) In addition to the legally binding requirements laid down in this Regulation, indicative 
benchmarks for best available technologies should be identified to ensure the wide 
availability and easy accessi bility of information on th e life-cycle environmental 
performance of products s ubject to this Regulation. 
(15) The measures provided for in this Regul ation are in accordance with the opinion of the 
Committee established by Article 19(1) of Directive 2009/125/EC, 
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: 
Article 1 
Subject matter and scope 
1. This Regulation establishes ecodesign requirements for the placing on the market of 
electric mains-operated and gas-fired house hold tumble driers and built-in household 
tumble driers, including thos e sold for non-household use.  
2. This Regulation shall not apply to household combined  washer-driers and household 
spin-extractors. 
Article 2 
Definitions 
In addition to the definitions  set out in Article 2 of Di rective 2009/125/EC, the following 
definitions shall apply for the purpose of this Regulation: 
(1) ‘household tumble drier’ means an applia nce in which textiles  are dried by tumbling 
in a rotating drum through which heated air is passed and which is designed to be used principally for non-professional purposes; 
(2) ‘built-in household tumble  drier’ means a household tumble drier intended to be 
installed in a cabinet, a pr epared recess in a wall or a similar location, requiring 
furniture finishing;  
(3) ‘household combined washer-drier’ means a household washing machine which 
includes both a spin extraction function a nd also a means for drying the textiles, 
usually by heating and tumbling; 
(4) ‘household spin-extractor’, also known commercially as ‘spin-drier’, means an 
appliance in which water is removed from the textiles by centrifugal action in a rotating drum and drained through an automatic pump and which is designed to be used principally for non-professional purposes;  
(5) ‘air-vented tumble drier’ means a tumble dr ier that draws in fresh air, passes it over 
the textiles and vents the resulting moist air into the room or outside; 
(6) ‘condenser tumble drier’ means a tumble drier which includes a device (either using 
condensation or any other means) for removing moisture from the air used for the drying process;  
EN 4   EN (7) ‘programme’ means a series of operations that are predefined and which are declared 
by the manufacturer as suitable for drying certain types of textile;  
(8) ‘cycle’ means a complete drying process,  as defined for the selected programme; 
(9) ‘programme time’ means the time that el apses from the initiation of the programme 
until the completion of the programme, excluding any end-user programmed delay; 
(10) ‘rated capacity’ means the maximum mass in kilograms, indicated by the 
manufacturer in 0.5 kilogram increments of dry textiles of a particular type, which 
can be treated in a household tumble drier with the selected pr ogramme, when loaded 
in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions; 
(11) ‘partial load’ means half  of the rated capacity of a hous ehold tumble drier for a given 
programme; 
(12) ‘condensation efficiency’ means the ratio  between the mass of moisture condensed 
by a condenser tumble drier and the mass of moisture removed from the load at the 
end of a cycle; 
(13) ‘off-mode’ means a condition where the household tumble drier is switched off using 
appliance controls or switches accessibl e to and intended for operation by the end-
user during normal use to at tain the lowest power consum ption that may persist for 
an indefinite time while the household tumble  drier is connected to a power source 
and used in accordance with the manufact urer’s instructions; where there is no 
control or switch accessible to the end-user, ‘off-mode’ means the condition reached 
after the household tumble drier reverts to a steady-state power consumption on its 
own; 
(14) ‘left-on mode’ means the lowest power consumption mode that may persist for an 
indefinite time after completion of the pr ogramme without any fu rther intervention 
by the end-user besides unloading of the household tumble drier; 
(15) ‘equivalent household tumb le drier’ means a model of household tumble drier placed 
on the market with the same rated capacity, technical and performance 
characteristics, energy consumption, c ondensation efficiency where relevant, 
standard cotton programme time and airb orne acoustical noise emissions during 
drying as another model of household tumb le drier placed on th e market under a 
different commercial code number by the same manufacturer. 
Article 3 
Ecodesign requirements 
The generic ecodesign requirements for household tumble driers are set out in point 1 of 
Annex I. The specific ecodesign requirements for household tumble  driers are set out in point 
2 of Annex I.  
No ecodesign requirement is necessary regarding any other ecodesign para meter referred to in 
Annex I, Part 1, of Directive 2009/125/EC.  
EN 5   EN Article 4 
Conformity assessment 
1. The conformity assessment procedure re ferred to in Article 8 of Directive 
2009/125/EC shall be the internal design co ntrol set out in Annex IV to that 
Directive or the management system se t out in Annex V to  that Directive. 
2. For the purposes of conformity assessm ent pursuant to Article 8 of Directive 
2009/125/EC, the technical documentation sha ll include a copy of the calculations 
set out in Annex II to  this Regulation.  
Where the information included in the technical documentation for a particular 
household tumble drier model has been obtai ned by calculation on the basis of design 
or by extrapolation from other equivalent  tumble driers, or both, the technical 
documentation shall include details of such calculations or extr apolations, or both, 
and of tests undertaken by manufacturers to verify the accuracy of the calculations 
undertaken. In such cases, th e technical documentation shall also include a list of all 
other equivalent household tumble drier m odels where the information included in 
the technical documentation was obtained in the same way.  
Article 5 
Verification procedure for market surveillance purposes 
Member States shall apply the verification procedure described in Annex III to this 
Regulation when performing the market surveilla nce checks referred to in Article 3(2) of 
Directive 2009/125/EC for comp liance with requirements set out in Annex I to this 
Regulation. 
Article 6 
Benchmarks 
The indicative benchmarks for best-performi ng household tumble driers available on the 
market at the time of entry into force of this Regulation are set out in Annex IV.  
Article 7 
Revision 
The Commission shall review th is Regulation in the light of  technological progress no later 
than five years after its entry into force and pr esent the result of that review to the Ecodesign 
Consultation Forum. The review shall in particul ar assess the verification tolerances set out in 
Annex III. 
Article 8 
Entry into force and application 
1. This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its 
publication in the Official Journal of the European Union . 
2. It shall apply from [date to  be inserted: one year after the entry into force of the 
Regulation].  
EN 6   EN  However: 
(a) the generic ecodesign re quirements set out in points 1(1) and (2) of Annex I 
shall apply from [date to be inserted: tw o years after the entry into force of the 
Regulation]; 
(b) the specific ecodesign requirements set out  in point 2(2) of Annex I shall apply 
from [date to be inserted: five years after the entry into force of the Regulation]. 
This Regulation shall be binding in  its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States. 
Done at Brussels,  
 For the Commission 
 The President 
EN 7   EN ANNEX I  
Ecodesign requirements  
1. Generic ecodesign requirements 
(1) For the calculation of the energy cons umption and other parameters for household 
tumble driers, the cycle which dries cotton la undry (with an initial moisture content of 
the load of 60%) up to a remaining moisture content of the load of 0  % (hereinafter 
the ‘standard cotton programme’) shall be  used. That cycle shall be clearly 
identifiable on the programme selection de vice of the household tumble drier or the 
household tumble drier display, if any, or  both, and indicated as ‘standard cotton 
programme’, and shall be set as the defa ult cycle for household tumble driers 
equipped with automatic programme selec tion or any function for automatically 
selecting a drying programme or mainta ining the selection of a programme.  
(2) The booklet of instructions provide d by the manufacturer shall provide: 
(a) information about the ‘standard cott on programme’ and shall specify that 
it is suitable to dry normal wet co tton laundry and that it is the most 
efficient programme in terms of energy consumption for drying wet 
cotton laundry; 
(b) the power consumption of the off-mode and the left-on mode; 
(c) indicative information on the pr ogramme time and energy consumption 
for the main drying programmes at full or partial load, or both; 
2. Specific ecodesign requirements 
Household tumble driers shall comply with the following requirements:  
(1) From [date to be inserted: one year af ter the entry into force of the Regulation]: 
– the Energy Efficiency Index ( EEI) shall be less than 85; [=phase out Class D]  
– for household condenser tumble driers the weighted condensation efficiency shall 
be not lower than 60  %. [=phase out Class E]  
(2) From [date to be inserted: five years af ter the entry into force of the Regulation]:  
– for household condenser tumble driers the Energy Efficiency Index ( EEI) shall be 
less than 76; [=phase out Class C condenser driers, but not vented driers]  
– for household condenser tumble driers, the weighted condensation efficiency shall 
be not lower than 70  %. [=phase out Class D]  
The Energy Efficiency Index ( EEI) and the condensation effici ency are calculated in 
accordance with Annex II.  
EN 8   EN ANNEX II  
Method for calculating the Energy Efficien cy Index and weighted condensation 
efficiency  
1. CALCULATION OF THE ENERGY EFFICIENCY INDEX  
For the calculation of the Energy Efficiency Index ( EEI) of a household tumble drier model, 
the weighted Annual Energy Consumption of a hous ehold tumble drier for the standard cotton 
programme at full and partial load is compar ed to its Standard Annual Energy Consumption. 
(a) The Energy Efficiency Index ( EEI) is calculated as follows and rounded to one 
decimal place:  
 
100×=
CC
SAEAEEEI
 
where: 
– AEC = weighted Annual Energy Consumption of the household tumble drier; 
– SAE C = Standard Annual Energy Consumption of the household tumble drier. 
(b) The Standard Annual Energy Consumption ( SAE C) is calculated in kWh/year as 
follows and rounded to two decimal places:  
– for all household tumble driers that are not air-vented: 
 8.0140 c SAEC×= 
– for household air-vented tumble driers:  
 
⎟
⎠⎞⎜
⎝⎛×−×=6030 1408.0 t
CTc SAE
 
where:  
– c is the rated capacity of the household tumble drier for the standard cotton 
programme; 
– Tt is the weighted programme time for the standard cotton programme. 
(c) The weighted Annual Energy Consumption ( AEC) is calculated in kWh/year as 
follows and is rounded to two decimal places: 
(i): 
 
1000602)160 ( 525600
2)160 ( 525600
160×⎥⎦⎤
⎢⎣⎡ ×−×+×−×
+×=t
lt
o
t CTPTP
E AE
  
EN 9   EN where:  
- E t = weighted energy consumption, in kWh and rounded to two decimal places; 
- P o = power in ‘off-mode’ fo r the standard cotton programme at full load, in W 
and rounded to two decimal places; 
- P l = power in ‘left-on mode’ for the sta ndard cotton programm e at full load, in 
W and rounded to two decimal places; 
- T t = weighted programme time, in minut es and rounded to the nearest minute; 
- 160 = total number of drying cycles per year.  
 (ii) When the household tumble drier is equipped with a power management 
system, with the household tumble drier reverting automatica lly to ‘off-mode’ 
after the end of the pr ogramme, the weighted A nnual Energy Consumption 
(AEC) is calculated taking into consideration the effective duration of the ‘left-
on mode’, according to the following formula:  
 [ ] {}
100060)160 ()160 ( 525600 )160 (160××−×−×+××+×=l t o l l
t CT T P TPE AE
 
where:  
- T l = duration of the ‘left-on mode’ for the standard cotton programme at full 
load, in minutes and rounde d to the nearest minute. 
(d) The weighted programme time ( Tt) for the standard cotton programme is calculated 
in minutes as follows and rounded to the nearest minute: 
Tt = (3 × Tdry + 4 × Tdry½)/7 
where: 
- T dry = programme time for the standard cotton programme at full load, in 
minutes and rounded to the nearest minute;  
- T dry½  = programme time for the standard co tton programme at partial load, in 
minutes and rounded to the nearest minute. 
 (e) The weighted energy consumption ( Et) is calculated in kWh as follows and rounded 
to two decimal places: 
Et = (3 × Edry + 4 × Edry½)/7 
where: 
- E dry = energy consumption of the standa rd cotton programme at full load, in 
kWh and rounded to two decimal places;  
- E dry½  = energy consumption of the standard  cotton programme at partial load, 
in kWh and rounded to two decimal places. 
  
EN 10   EN  (f) For gas-fired household tumble driers , the energy consumption for the standard 
cotton programme at full and partial load  is calculated in kWh, rounded to two 
decimal places, as:  
 
adry
gdry
dry EgfEgE,+=
 
 
a dry
gdry
dry EgfEgE½,½
½ +=
 
where: 
- Eg dry = gas consumption of the standard co tton programme at full load, in kWh 
and rounded to two decimal places;  
- Eg dry½  = gas consumption of the standard co tton programme at partial load, in 
kWh and rounded to two decimal places;  
- Eg dry,a = auxiliary electricity consumption of the standa rd cotton programme at 
full load, in kWh and rounded to two decimal places;  
- Eg dry½,a  = auxiliary electricity consumption of the standard cotton programme 
at partial load, in kWh and r ounded to two decimal places;  
- f g = 2.5. 
2. CALCULATION OF THE WEIGHTED CONDENSATION EFFICIENCY  
The condensation efficiency of a programme is the ratio between the mass of moisture 
condensed and collected in  the container of a condenser tumb le drier and the mass of moisture 
removed from the load by the programme, the la tter being the difference between the mass of 
the wet load before drying and the mass of the test load after drying. For calculating the 
weighted condensation efficiency, the average co ndensation efficiency of  the standard cotton 
programme at both full and part ial load is considered.  
The weighted condens ation efficiency ( Ct) of a programme is calculated as a percentage and 
rounded to the nearest whole percent as:  
Ct = (3 × Cdry + 4 × Cdry½)/7 
where: –
 Cdry = average condensation efficiency of the standard cotton progr amme at full load; 
– Cdry½ = average condensation efficiency of the st andard cotton programme  at partial load. 
The average condensation efficiency C is calculated from the condensation efficiencies of test 
runs and expressed as a percentage: 
     
∑
=2⎟ ⎟ 
⎠ ⎞ 
⎜ ⎜ 
⎝ ⎛ × =n
(n-1) 1 1 
j f i wj100     
W   -  W W C  
EN 11   EN where: 
– n is the number of test runs, comprising at l east four valid test runs for the selected 
programme; 
– j is the test run number; 
– Wwj is the mass of water co llected in the condenser reservoir during test run j; 
– Wi is the mass of the wet te st load before drying; 
– Wf is the mass of the test load after drying.  
EN 12   EN ANNEX III  
Verification procedure for ma rket surveillance purposes  
For the purposes of checking conformity with  the requirements laid down in Annex I, 
Member State authorities shall test a singl e household tumble drier. If the measured 
parameters do not meet the values declared in  the technical documentation file within the 
meaning of Article 4(2) by th e manufacturer within the ra nges set out in Table 1, the 
measurements shall be carried out on three more household tumble driers. The arithmetic 
mean of the measured values of those th ree household tumble driers shall meet the 
requirements within the ranges set out in Table 1. 
Otherwise, the model and all other equivalent  household tumble driers models shall be 
considered not to comply with the requirements laid down in Annex I. 
Member States authorities shall use harmonise d standards the reference numbers of which 
have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union  or other relia ble, accurate 
and reproducible measurement procedures which take into account gene rally recognised state-
of-the-art measurement methods. 
Table 1 
Measured parameter Verification tolerances 
Weighted annual energy consumption The meas ured value shall not be greater than 
the rated value* of AEC by more than 10  %.  
Weighted energy consumption The measur ed value shall not be greater than 
the rated value of Et by more than 10  %.  
Weighted condensation efficiency The meas ured value shall not be less than the 
rated value of Ct by more than 10  %.  
Weighted programme time The measured  value shall not be longer than 
the rated values of Tt by more than 10  %.  
Power consumption in off-mode and left-on 
mode The measured value of power consumption 
Po and Pl of more than 1.00 W shall not be 
greater than the rated value by more than 10%. The measured value of power consumption P
o and Pl of less than or equal to 
1.00 W shall not be greater than the rated 
value by more than 0.10 W. 
Duration of the left-on mode  The meas ured value shall no t be longer than 
the rated value of Tl by more than 10  %. 
* ‘rated value’ means a value that is declared  by the supplier. The 10% uncertainty in the 
measurement represent the current acceptable te sting laboratory error in measuring the 
declared parameters with the new measurement method used for the new labelling/ecodesign requirements including full and partial load cycles. 
  
EN 13   EN ANNEX IV  
Benchmarks  
At the time of entry into force of this Regulation, the best av ailable technology on the market 
for household tumble driers, in terms of thei r energy consumption and airborne acoustical 
noise emissions during drying for the standard cotton programme, is identified as follows: 
(1) Household air-vented tu mble drier with a rate d capacity of 3 kg:  
(a) energy consumption: 1.89 kWh/cycle for the standard cotton cycle at full load, 
equal to about 247 kWh/year*; 
(b) airborne acoustical noise emissions: 69 dB(A) re 1pW. 
(2) Household air-vented tu mble drier with a rate d capacity of 5 kg:  
(a) energy consumption: 2.70 kWh/cycle for the standard cotton cycle at full load, 
equal to about 347 kWh/year*; 
(b) airborne acoustical noise  emissions: not available. 
(3) Household condenser tumble drier with a rated capacity of 5 kg:  
(a) energy consumption: 3.10 kWh/cycle for the standard cotton cycle at full load, 
equal to about 396 kWh/year*; 
(b) airborne acoustical noise  emissions: not available. 
(4) Household air-vented tu mble drier with a rate d capacity of 6 kg:  
(a) energy consumption: 3.84 kWh/cycle for the standard cotton cycle at full load, 
equal to about 487 kWh/year*; 
(b) airborne acoustical noise emissions: 67 dB(A) re 1pW. 
(5) Household condenser tumble drier with a rated capacity of 6 kg:  
(a) energy consumption: 1.58 kWh/cycle for the standard cotton cycle at full load, 
equal to about 209 kWh/year*; 
(b) airborne acoustical noise  emissions: not available. 
(6) Household air-vented tu mble drier with a rate d capacity of 7 kg:  
(a) energy consumption: 3.9 kWh/cycle for th e standard cotton cycle at full load, 
equal to about 495 kWh/year*; 
(b) airborne acoustical noise emissions: 65 dB(A) re 1pW. 
(7) Household condenser tumble drier with a rated capacity of 7 kg:  
(a) energy consumption: 1.6 kWh/cycle for th e standard cotton cycle at full load, 
equal to about 211 kWh/year*;  
EN 14   EN (b) airborne acoustical noise emissions: 65 dB(A) re 1pW. 
(8) Household air-vented tu mble drier with a rate d capacity of 8 kg:  
(a) energy consumption: 4.1 kWh/cycle for th e standard cotton cycle at full load, 
equal to about 520 kWh/year*; 
(b) airborne acoustical noise emissions: 65 dB(A) re 1pW. 
(9) Household condenser tumble drier with a rated capacity of 8 kg:  
(a) energy consumption: 2.30 kWh/cycle for the standard cotton cycle at full load, 
equal to about 297 kWh/year*; 
(b) airborne acoustical noise  emissions: not available. 
* calculated assuming 160 drying cycles per year with an energy consumption for the 
standard cotton programme at partial load equal to 60  % of the energy consumption at full 
load, and an additional annual energy cons umption in low power modes of 13.5 kWh.