An Approach to the Assessment of Durability of Energy-related Products

Extending the lifetime of products can potentially avoid the purchase of new products and therefore reduce consumption of materials and generation of waste. The lifetime can be extended by designing more durable products, as also highlighted in the Communication of the European Commission COM(2015) 614 'Closing the loop - An EU action plan for the Circular Economy'. The aim of this paper is to present an approach for the identification of appropriate strategies contributing to improve the durability of Energy-related Products (ErP). After the definition of a product system, the approach foresees the analysis of failure and degradation mechanisms and the further identification and assessment of improvement measures, also with the support of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). This approach and method can find practical application in the analysis of products for which design options aimed at improving durability are sought.