'I HAVE been talking to Geoff Lockwood, technical director of Ebm-papst and chairman of the Fan Manufacturers Association' comments Paul Braithwaite, HVR editor.
This august body has been in discussion with the commissioners of the European Union about new legislation for, as you might expect, fans.

Almost by accident, the FMA was alerted by Bill Cory, one of its members and a consultant working for the people at the EU who were drafting regulations about fans, electric motors and pumps.

However, they have looked at each sector in isolation. The brains of Brussels don't know much about fans which is why they have drafted in experts. But Lockwood - and I agree with him - would rather have fans, pumps and electric motors looked at together for even greater energy savings from systems.

That was not to be and there is now draft regulation in place in the EU which will be ratified by the member states almost without change, in spite of the fact that the FMA and other interested stakeholders are lobbying against one or two of the new rules.

The FMA, which is part of FETA, realised about 10 years ago that it would have to put its house in order. It knew legislation was coming. It saw that it would be better to have a standard for fans and has started drafting a standard in the ISO fan committee (ISO/TC117) along with publishing a good practice guide with CIBSE last year.

Lockwood says the FMA is not against these new regs. He says it is the best compromise the industry could get. Further, it will help manufacturers focus their minds on energy efficiency.

However, he is unhappy with the way he (and the FMA) found out about the proposals. If Cory had not advised him and he had not warned colleagues across the EU, fan manufacturers would have had even less say in the regs than they have now.

The proposals were not discussed in secret but such was the lack of communication between the EU, DEFRA et al that those with most knowledge were almost left out of the proceedings.

Meanwhile the greens are in there lobbying for what they want - because they have the money - and slewing legislation their way.

One commissioner who, says Lockwood, listened to the fan manufacturers (albeit selectively) was considering banning all forward curved fans and it was only when Lockwood explained that while they were not as efficient as backward curved fans, they had their place in refurbishments.

Meanwhile the EU missed a trick by not bringing together fans etc in an holistic sector for even greater energy efficiency.

And, like most of the legislation, the British and Germans will follow it to the letter, while the French, Spanish and Italians will pick the bits they want and discard the rest. No change there then!