Solar Keymark

The Solar Keymark Association is an official quality mark of the European Committee for Standardization (CEN), developed with the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF) to overcome the varying testing and certification requirements in different EU countries. It guarantees the quality of solar thermal products or complete compact systems. Testing to the European Solar Keymark standard has become increasing the adopted norm and all compliant collectors are marked with the logo shown below.

The Keymark certifies compliance of a product with the relevant European norms and requires independent tests by an accredited test institute and the existence of a quality management system equivalent to ISO 9000.

By March 2010 more than 70% of solar panel types being sold in Eurpore were Solar Keymark certified, with the number continuing to rise. However the scheme has been less successful in certifying complete systems, primarily because each system configuration must be tested separately and the costs become prohibitive. The Solar Keymark is being accepted by more and more Governments and public authorities in Europe as the de-facto quality standard and is increasingly being written into incentive schemes as a minimum acceptable quality level.

EN12975

Specifies requirements on durability (including mechanical strength), reliability and safety for liquid heating solar collectors. It also includes provisions for evaluation of conformity to these requirements.

In particular the following is tested under EN12975

• Internal pressure tests for absorbers
• High-temperature resistance test
• Exposure test
• External thermal shock test
• Internal thermal shock test
• Rain penetration test
• Freeze resistance test (optional)
• Mechanical load test
• Impact resistance test (optional)
• Final inspection
• Thermal performance test: under steady state conditions or under quasi- dynamic conditions

The collector testing is carried out at a number of centres throughout Europe, many of which publish the result certificates online.
 
ITW Germany www.itw.uni-stuttgart.de/abteilungen/tzs/index.php

SPF – Switzerland www.solarenergy.ch

It should be remembered, that the system effectiveness is most important and that other components such as pipework, insulation, lenght of piperuns and installation standard can have a much larger effect in output compared to even significant variations in collector performance. may not be reflected by corresponding increases in actual system performance.