Brussels, 22/07/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 22 July, the European Commission adopted four new rules on the eco-design of products, under Directive 2005/32/EC. The new regulations aim to improve energy efficiency of industrial electric motors, circulators, televisions, refrigerators and freezers. The four regulations stipulate requirements for energy efficiency so that annual energy saving will be 190 terawatt hours by 2020, which corresponds to the annual electricity consumption of Austria and Sweden combined. The regulation on motors, which fixes energy performance requirements for most electrical motors used in industrial applications, will promote the use of speed variators that adjust the power of the motors depending on real needs instead of allowing them to run continually at full power. Energy savings imputed to this regulation are estimated at nearly 135 terawatt hours per year by 2020. The aim of the regulation on circulators, which are integrated into boilers or heating systems in nearly all buildings, is to move the market towards intelligent high output circulators, able to adjust to the heating system's needs. Energy savings expected could reach nearly 25 terawatt hours per year by 2020. The other two regulations - one on televisions and the other on refrigerators and freezers - will only allow the marketing of energy efficient products. Annual electricity savings expected by 2020 for these two regulations are estimated at nearly 30 terawatt hours. In total, there are now nine eco-design regulations that have been adopted since December 2008 and which, according to the Commission, should allow energy savings, if fully implemented, by way of 315 terawatt hours by 2020 - which is more than Italy's annual electricity consumption. The first five regulations adopted and published in the Official Journal concern consumption on standby mode and stop mode (OJ L 339 of 18 December 2008), simple digital decoders (OJ L 36 of 5 February 2009), lamps and ballasts (OJ L 76 of 24 March 2009) and external supply sources (OJ L 93 of 7 April 2009). (E.H./transl.jl)