Vexve receives Euroheat & Power certification for district heating steel valves

Euroheat & Power is very pleased to announce the first certificate awarded to district heating steel valves manufactured according to the EN 488 standard*. The certificate was issued to Vexve Oy by RISE (Research Institute of Sweden) who performed the testing in accordance with the Euroheat & Power certification guidelines (EHP003).

Jussi Vanhanen, CEO of Vexve Oy noted on this occasion: ”As a leading producer of high quality underground valves for heating and cooling, our key goal is to make life easy for our customers. The Euroheat & Power certification is a guarantee to our customers that the valves they use are specifically suited for demanding underground conditions and will operate reliably over whole lifetime of the networks. By introducing this certification, Euroheat & Power is facilitating the positive development toward increasing efficiency and higher return on investment of district energy infrastructure.”

“RISE (formerly known as SP) has been involved in the testing, certification and certification scheme development of district heating components for nearly 30 years. With EHP003, Euroheat & Power has taken an important step in providing a common European path for quality assurance of shutoff valves for district heating and cooling valves based on the updated EN 488:2015 methodology. For this reason, RISE Certification will only certify underground shutoff valves according to the EHP003 guidelines and will dismantle the RISE-specific schemes for these products. We are therefore pleased to be the first approved certification body to issue the first EHP003 certificate to the Finnish manufacturer Vexve.” added Dag Sjöholm, RISE Business Development Manager.

For many years, Euroheat & Power has successfully managed certification programmes for different district heating components. Our certification enables an increased product quality level, sound competition and more reliable and easier procurement. Furthermore, the guidelines increase cost efficiency by avoiding multiple testing and inspections during production.

The purpose of the Euroheat & Power programmes is to provide an economical and beneficial voluntary certification system for both suppliers and users, to reassure users of sufficient product quality and to provide more uniform, equal and fair competition conditions in Europe while avoiding unsound price competition at the expense of quality.

The certification programmes put in place a formal procedure allowing manufacturers to obtain an internationally recognised quality mark from an independent third party confirming that their product conforms to the requirements stipulated in the standards.

Euroheat & Power encourages all producers to apply the certification procedures according to the available guidelines, and district heating companies are recommended to buy and use only certified products.

*EN 488: “District heating pipes – Preinsulated bonded pipe systems for directly buried hot water networks – Steel valve assembly for steel service pipes, polyurethane thermal insulation and outer casing of polyethylene”.

For more information on the Euroheat & Power certification programmes, please contact Simas Gerdvila at sg@euroheat.org.