One Europe, one standard – rethinking certification for residential ventilation

Morten Schmelzer, Head of Group Public Affairs at Systemair AB, discusses the current patchwork of Residential Air Handling Unit (RAHU) certifications in the European HVAC landscape, the hidden costs of fragmentation, and the case for a unified, pan-European approach.

Residential ventilation systems are critical to delivering healthier indoor environments and improving building energy efficiency. Yet, across Europe, their certification remains inconsistent — shaped by varying national and third-party schemes, differing technical requirements, and overlapping testing regimes. These schemes are often similar in scope, but having to apply multiple programmes understandably adds limited real value, driving up costs for manufacturers, their customers, and ultimately, the end-users.

In a post-COVID market revival, we have a unique opportunity to simplify, align, and elevate our certification standards while moving towards one single scheme acknowledged all over Europe.

Post-COVID market uptick: Time for a certification reset

After a pandemic-induced slowdown, the residential ventilation market is regaining momentum again. This resurgence presents the ideal moment to rethink entrenched national practices that have become barriers rather than enablers.

New construction and deep renovation projects increasingly prioritise indoor air quality and energy performance. With demand rising, decision-makers across Europe and along the HVAC value chain are again seeking clarity and comparability. In an ideal scenario, we should thus not return to the pre-COVID status quo of fragmented rules and redundant testing.

A patchwork of certification schemes

Currently, RAHU certification is governed by a mosaic of national or third-party schemes. Many apply different standards, scopes, and levels of transparency. Some even allow self-declared data without independent verification. Others apply internal protocols as standards, lack surveillance, or offer limited comparability.

This lack of harmonisation leads to confusion for specifiers, higher testing costs for manufacturers, and limited confidence among consumers and investors. In many cases, performance claims are difficult to compare across markets, despite the units serving similar purposes.

To give a clearer picture, below is a comparison table featuring three of the more acknowledged third-party certifications and one national scheme.

A simple comparison of these three certification schemes already reveals several key differences, which hinder meaningful comparison across the European market. With various countries showing historic preferences or being bound by national requirements, manufacturers are often left with little choice but to certify their residential product ranges under multiple schemes. This poses a challenge for the industry.

Who pays the cost of fragmentation?

Each additional certification scheme introduces redundant testing costs, which are ultimately borne by manufacturers and passed on to customers. For businesses operating in multiple European countries, this means parallel submissions, retesting, and repeated administrative effort. All to prove, more or less, the same thing, but with crucial differences in terms of rigidity, comparability, and surveillance.

In times of rising energy and material costs, these inefficiencies are not sustainable and not justifiable within a single European market. This highlights the importance of a harmonised certification approach to reduce duplication, enable broader market access and help deliver better-performing products at a better value.

RAHUs should be treated as energy-related products (ErP) – not construction products

Historically, a key issue of why we have reached this point lies in national protectionism and in how RAHUs are categorised. In several regulatory contexts, although there has been an EU Ecodesign Regulation for RAHU in force since 2014, these units are treated as construction products, allowing national authorities, such as Belgium's NBN, to require additional testing protocols on top of EU law. This undermines the internal market and creates duplicative requirements with questionable added value.

Instead, RAHUs should be treated as ErP, which they effectively are, given that they are already governed by the Ecodesign and Energy Labelling framework. This perspective reinforces the importance of transparent, centralised certification rooted in actual use cases and independently verified data.

A pan-European approach: Eurovent Certified Performance

Considering all of the above, I believe the Eurovent Certified Performance (ECP) programme for RAHUs offers precisely that, and should, in combination with the existing Ecodesign Regulation, be regarded as a viable solution to overcome the current patchwork of residential certification schemes while ensuring an effective surveillance and enforcement framework. This is because it is:

·         The only European-wide certification scheme for balanced residential ventilation units with heat recovery.

·         Based on EN 13141-7, aligned with the Ecodesign and Energy Labelling Regulation.

·         Conducted by an accredited, independent third-party body, with units anonymously purchased from the open market.

·         Supplemented by optional cold climate testing, leakage classification, and sound verification.

·         Transparent, with publicly available data in the Eurovent Certification online database.

Such a scheme ensures trust, transparency, and comparability across European borders.

A call for alignment

Now is the time to pursue a unified certification framework for RAHUs. Europe needs fewer parallel schemes, not more. A single, independent, trusted programme, like Eurovent Certified Performance, enables fair competition, supports cross-border specification, and reduces cost burdens across our HVAC value chain.

As policymakers, trade associations, consultants, and industry leaders, we share the responsibility to promote alignment over fragmentation, for our own sake. It’s time to rethink outdated patterns and move toward a certification approach that reflects the ambitions of today’s residential ventilation market.