The EU energy label · Delegated Regulation 2019/2014 read on 7 November 2026
What does each box on the washing machine label actually mean, in the EU system used in Romania?
None of the label’s small numbers are marketing promises: each is measured under the same regulation annex, on the eco 40-60 programme, precisely so machines can be compared with each other. Choose the zone that puzzles you; the drawn label lights it, and below sits its translation into daily life, plus your yearly cost computed from your own figures.
The chosen zone, translated
Example: the A–G scale, with 64 kWh/100 cycles and four washes a week
The big letter is a grade on a closed A–G scale, rescaled in 2021 precisely because the old pluses had filled it up.
The class is computed from an efficiency index of the eco 40-60 programme; an A+++ from the old label does not translate into a particular letter on the new one, and the same machine can receive a lower class today without having got worse. On the example figures: about 133 kWh a year for washing, at four cycles a week.
Why A+++ vanished, and why C is no disgrace now#
The old European ladder for washing machines climbed through A+, A++ and A+++ as appliances all improved in the same direction. On 1 March 2021, Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/2014 replaced it with the closed A-to-G scale of framework Regulation 2017/1369, and the new class thresholds were drawn so that the top stayed almost empty at first. No machine became worse on the day of the change; the ruler was re-graduated around it.
The reading consequence is simple and counter-intuitive: classes from the two label generations do not compare. The old label (Regulation 1061/2010) rested on different programmes and an annual consumption, not on the new label’s weighted consumption per 100 cycles on eco 40-60, so a figure on one cannot be converted by calculation into the figure on the other. For two machines from different generations, read each label’s own values (kilowatt-hours and litres) and treat the comparison only as a rough orientation.
For today’s purchase the new ladder has a use the old one had lost: real headroom. The top classes were deliberately left open at the start, so differences between classes have room to matter again.
Every figure is measured on one programme: eco 40-60#
The regulation defines “eco 40-60” as the name of the programme declared by the supplier as able to clean normally soiled cotton laundry declared washable at 40 °C or 60 °C in the same wash cycle; the label and product-sheet information refer to it, the definition itself adds. The weighted energy consumption is the weighted average of measurements at rated capacity, at half and at a quarter of it; the same weighting structures the water per cycle.
This discipline serves a fair-market purpose: without a reference programme, each maker would measure consumption on its most forgiving cycle and the figures would never meet. It also carries a reading price at home: the label describes a laboratory convention close to ordinary washing, long and water-thrifty, in place of your favourite 20 °C programme or the quick one.
From the same rule family come the minimum thresholds of the paired ecodesign regulation, 2019/2023, which removes models under an efficiency line from the market. The label shows the competition above the line, while the line itself stays invisible on the shelf, precisely because nothing under it arrives there.
How two machines compare with the label in front of you#
The sound order starts with the capacity useful to your life, not with the letter. The label weights consumption at rated, half and quarter capacity, and a big machine always run on small loads makes little use of its capacity advantage; kilowatt-hours per 100 cycles compare machines of similar capacities honestly. Next come the litres per cycle, today often more visible on the bill than small electricity differences, then the spin class if the laundry meets a tumble dryer, where every remaining litre of water is paid a second time, in heat.
Noise is read last and felt first in a small home: the decibels cover the spin, and in a studio flat a 5 dB difference between two models weighs as much as an energy class, as any neighbour on the landing will testify. The QR code closes the comparison with the full official sheet in the EPREL database, where even maximum temperatures and rinsing effectiveness can be checked by whoever wants proof beyond the boxes.
The yearly estimate in the checker assumes the eco programme and your declared rhythm. Use it as a comparative order of magnitude between two labels, not as a bill promise: quick programmes, often-chosen high temperatures and half-empty drums all move the result their way.
What the label never says, however large you zoom it#
The label does not measure how cleanly the machine washes on your daily programmes, how it behaves with a duvet or three T-shirts, how long the pump lives, or what the control board costs in year seven. Service life, repairability and wash quality live in tests, warranties and manuals. It does not state your electricity price either: the checker’s estimate uses the figure you type from your bill and stays silent without it.
Washer-dryers carry a sister label with two columns: the complete wash-and-dry cycle on the left, washing alone on the right (Regulation 2019/2014, Annex III.B). The consumption of the complete cycle is another, longer and warmer story. The reading rules here apply to the right-hand washing column; whoever compares a combined machine reads the two columns separately, exactly as the regulation printed them.
Frequently asked questions#
My old machine was A+++. Why is the new one only C?
Because the scale was rescaled in 2021, with the top classes left almost empty. The new class does not compare with the old one; read the kilowatt-hours and litres on each label; the old label used different programmes and an annual consumption, so the comparison stays a rough orientation, not a conversion.
Is the “64 kWh” consumption per year?
No, it is the weighted consumption for 100 eco 40-60 cycles. At four washes a week, about two hundred cycles pass in a year, so the yearly order of magnitude is twice the label figure, computed exactly in the checker above.
The eco programme takes almost three and a half hours. Where is the saving?
In the little water and the real temperatures, lower than the 40–60 name suggests, compensated by the long contact time with the detergent. The printed duration is the one at rated capacity; the label consumptions are measured on this programme precisely because every machine has it.
What does the letter beside the decibels mean?
The decibels measure the airborne noise of the spinning phase, and the letter, on a separate A-to-D scale, its acoustic-emission class. The washing itself is usually far quieter than the spin’s peak figure.
Is a 10 kg machine worth it for a family washing 4 kg loads?
The label answers through its weighted structure: the consumptions average full, half and quarter loads, but a big drum always run on small loads makes little use of the advantage it was bought for. The capacity actually used weekly deserves weighing alongside the differences between classes.
What does the QR code open?
The model’s public sheet in the European EPREL database, with the product information: weighted consumption, maximum temperatures reached, durations by load and rinsing effectiveness. The technical documentation stays in the restricted part of the database, reserved for authorities. It is the quick check on any number spoken in a shop.
Sources and how they were checked#
- Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/2014 on energy labelling of household washing machines, the EUR-Lex text read directly (Romanian edition) on 7 November 2026
- European Commission, the page on the rescaled energy label and the EPREL database
The definitions and the order of the boxes were re-read on 7 November 2026 directly in Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/2014 on EUR-Lex: the label carries, in order, the A–G scale, the class, the weighted consumption per 100 cycles, the eco 40-60 capacity, the weighted water per cycle, the programme duration at rated capacity, the spin class and the spin-phase noise; the weighted consumption averages measurements at full, half and quarter load. The yearly estimate is schoolbook multiplication of the reader’s own figures and assumes the eco programme; other programmes consume differently.