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To permit a comparison of the power inputs of ballasts and lamp circuits for fluorescent lamps, CENELEC (Comité Européen de Normalisation Electrotechnique), the European committee for electronic standardisation, has developed a standard for the measurement of the total input power of ballasts-lamp circuits. The umbrella organisation of European luminaire and ballast manufacturer associations (CELMA) has introduced a classification of the total input power of ballast-lamp circuits (EEI = Energy Efficiency Index). According to this, the input power is divided into seven classes per lamp type. The following table details the EEI classes, whereby A1 (dimmable), A2 and A3 are for electronic, B1 and B2 for low-loss and C and D for conventional electromagnetic ballasts.
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Against the background of international requirements to reduce greenhouse gases (world climate protection conference), European Directive 2000/55/EC governs the use of ballasts for fluorescent lamps. The new directive regarding energy efficiency requirements prohibited the sale of energy-class D ballasts on the European market (EU) with effect from 21.05.2002 and the sale of energy-class C ballasts with effect from 21.11.2005.
Correspondingly, these ballasts have no longer carried a CE mark since their prohibition date and are no longer permitted to be installed in luminaires destined for sale within the European Union economic region.
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