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Version 5.6 by Uwe Trueggelmann on 2026-09-30
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1 = Site worksheets - sitNN =
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3 == Volume or Time Allocation - Cell G14 ==
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5 === Introduction ===
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7 The Volume or Time Allocation field is used to address situations where the use of a production site is very inhomogeneous, for example a plastic production site that produces plastic for card production films 20 % of the time and plastic for packaging applications 80 % of the time, and hence allocating the whole energy consumption to the plastic card film production would result in much too high values that are not representative for the actual consumption needed for the plastic card film production.
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9 Unless such case occurs, the value in cell G14 in the Site worksheets ("sitNN") should be kept at 100%.
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11 For situations like a card production site producing cards continuously throughout the year, this value shall be kept at 100%.
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13 === Volume Allocation ===
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15 Volume Allocation may be used if the site or production line is used only for a part of the period energy consumption is reported for to produce the product subject to CEC certification.
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17 For example, a manufacturing site produces banking cards 50 % of the total volume and driving licences 50 % of the volume. In this case, allocating all the energy consumption of the factory entirely to the banking card production would result in values 2 times as high as the real values, assuming that energy consumption for making banking cards and driving licenses is comparable.
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19 To compensate for this, the Volume or Time Allocation can be used. In this example, the value 50 % should be entered into cell G14 in the respective sitNN worksheet in the cecQAF workbook.
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21 To support an allocation of less than 100 %, the vendor must show records for:
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23 * in which volume which product type was produced, both for the product type under certification, and for the product types excluded
24 * energy consumption for producing each of the different product types
25 * documented calculation of the Volume or Time Allocation value, taking into account the volumes in which the different product types were produced, and the energy consumption for producing each different product type.
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27 === Time Allocation ===
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29 Time Allocation may be used if the site or production line is used only for a part of the period energy consumption is reported for to produce the product subject to CEC certification.
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31 For example, a plastic film manufacturing site produces plastic films for card production 20 % of the time and plastic films for packaging applications 80 % of the time. In this case, allocating all the energy consumption of the factory to the plastic films for card production would result in values 5 times as high as the real values, assuming that energy consumption for making the different films is comparable.
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33 To compensate for this, the Volume or Time Allocation can be used. In this example, the value 20 % should be entered into cell G14 in the respective sitNN worksheet in the cecQAF workbook.
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35 To support an allocation of less than 100 %, the vendor must show records for:
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37 * at which times which product type was produced, both for the product type under certificate, and for the product types excluded
38 * energy consumption for producing each of the different product types
39 * documented calculation of the Volume or Time Allocation value, taking into account the time intervals during which the different product types were produced, and the energy consumption for producing each different product type.
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41 == Air Conditioning Allocation ==
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43 === Introduction ===
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45 Air Conditioning can be difficult to allocate to a specific part of a production. This is especially the case in a building that contains multiple production activities, only some of which must be included when determining the environmental impact of a specific product type.
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47 CEC accepts the allocation of energy used for air conditioning proportionally to the energy used for other production infrastructure.
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49 === Procedure ===
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51 (% class="box infomessage" %)
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53 The term "**Total Nominal Power**" is used below. The "**Nominal Power**" is the nominal power consumption of the equipment defined on the type sign of the equipment itself. In the cecQAF you enter these values in a sitNN worksheet in the optional Section 4. The "Total Nominal Power" is the sum of the applicable "**Nominal Power**" values.
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56 First determine the **Total Nominal Power** of your production equipment and infrastructure except air conditioning.
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58 Then determine what percentage is allocated to the product type that is subject to CEC certification. This is the "**Allocated Nominal Power**".
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60 You can use the sitNN worksheet for this, but without the air conditioning system at this stage (you can set the **Nominal Power** for the air conditioning to 0 if you already added the entries). If you use the sitNN worksheet, take a screenshot or retain a saved copy of the cecQAF at this stage, so you have evidence how you determined the allocation of the air conditioning system.
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62 Determine the "**Air Condition Allocation Factor**" by dividing the **Allocated Nominal Power** by the **Total Nominal Power** and rounding it up to one significant digit. The value must be therefor be between 0.1 and 1.0. Round the value up to one significant digit, for example if you calculate 0.327 then rounding up to one significant digit results in 0.4. You must round up and not use 4/5 rounding! The QAF worksheet may permit you to enter the value in column M as a percentage number; if so, then for example the percentage number corresponding to 0.3 is 30%.
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64 If the cecQAF worksheet only allows you to select Yes/No in column M, then add the **Nominal Power** of the air conditioning system multiplied with the **Air Condition Allocation Factor** as the "Nominal Power" of the air conditioning system in column D of section 4 of the sitNN worksheet. Enter the data as a formula so it is clear you did the allocation calculation. If the **Nominal Power** of your air condition system is 50000 and the air **Air Condition Allocation Factor** is 0.7, then enter "=50000 * 0.7".
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66 If the cecQAF worksheet allows you to select a percentage in column M, then enter the full **Nominal Power** of the air conditioning system in column D of the sitNN worksheet, and select the **Air Condition Allocation Factor** in column M.
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68 = Electricity Allocation =
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70 While completing the information in Section 1 is mandatory, completing Section 4 (Electricity Allocation) provides options to reduce the amount of electricity allocated to the production of the product subject to certification, compared to the default, which is the amount of electricity invoiced divided by the number of products produced.
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72 Obtaining all the data for the Electricity Allocation requires some effort. This effort is usually justified if there are significant production activities in addition to those related to the product subject to certification. For example, if you want to certify a card body, and in addition to card body production you have milling and embedding and a sizeable personalisation behind the same electricity meter on site, you can typically achieve a reduction of electricity consumption per card body of 30%, when compared to the simple method of just taking the site's electricity consumption and divide it by the number of card bodies produced. On the other hand, if all you want to exclude is a few office rooms and a handful of laptops, you will not see a significant reduction. Keep in mind that the main electricity consumers in card production are laminators, offset printing machines, and screen printing tunnels.
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74 If you decide to complete the form, please note some of the principles for completing it:
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76 * You will have to list all electricity consumers behind the electricity meter, not only those related to card body production
77 * You need to include lighting, air conditioning, and electrical heating
78 * The Nominal Power requested in column C is the nominal connection value of the device as usually defined on the connection sign showing the connection voltage. The Nominal Power is typically given in the unit Watts or Kilowatts (W or kW) or in VoltAmpere or KiloVoltAmpere (VA or kVA). If not specified on a sign attached to the device, the documentation of the device might provide such value. If you have no documentation about the nominal connection value of the device, you can use the value of the fuse the device is connected to.
79 * You may group items like lightbulbs, e.g. "Lightbulbs office"
80 * You may group items like desktop computers and laptops, assuming 250 W per office computer and 100 W per laptop
81 * Where you need to estimate, do not estimate 'nicer' than you have documented evidence for. Otherwise, your estimates, and as a consequence, possibly your claim, will be rejected.
82 * You enter values related to the type of product subject of certification, not only related to the product subject to certification. For example, if your product subject to certification is a card body made from recycled PVC, then you complete this worksheet with data related to the production of card bodies in general, not only card bodies made of recycled PVC.
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84 To complete the form, create a list of all the electricity consumers sharing the electricity meter the production of the product subject to certification is connected to:
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86 * Name each device in column A with a name that allows to unequivocally identify the device.
87 * Determine the Nominal Power consumption of the device from the electricity sign attached to the device, or from the device's documentation, or use the value of the fuse the device is connected to. Note that the unit in column C is fixed to VA. If the value you were provided is in W, then add a related note in column M 'Vendor's notes'. Unless you are continuously measuring the electricity consumption of the connected device, eg through a 'smart panel', do not report measured values here. If you report measured values, you have to report measured values for all connected devices. If you report measured values, add a related note in column M 'Vendor's notes'.
88 * By default, the "Average Runtime per day" is 24 hour. Only change this if you have evidence that the device is powered off during some time of the day. Note that the device must be physically powered off, not using the device for some time is not sufficient to reduce the runtime per day. If you run production 24 hour per day, but turn all equipment off over the weekend, then adjust the 24 hour runtime per day accordingly. For example, if all production equipment is turned off by 18:00 on Friday, and is powered on on 06:00 on Monday, then the equipment is powered off (2 x 24 + 2 x 6) hours during a 168 hour week, so the equipment is powered on (168 - 60) hour in a 168 hour week, so app. 64.29% of every week. You can ensure this is considered by multiplying the runtime during a workday in column F with this value, so in case of 24 hour Runtime per workday: (24 x 108 / 168) = app. 15.43 hour, so, you enter "15.43" in column F.
89 * In column K, select "Yes" for every device, unless you have documented evidence that the device is not related to production of the product subject to certification. For example, if your product subject to certification is a card body, then personalisation equipment can be excluded, but an air conditioning system operating also in the production area for card bodies may not.
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91 Grouping of devices:
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93 * You may group devices to simplify the listing of device, for example:
94 ** Column A: Lightbulbs in production - 80 x 10 W, Column B: 800
95 ** Column A: Office desktop PCs - 10 x 250 W, Column B: 2500
96 * You may group devices where you know that the whole group consumes less than a certain amount of electricity, eg you have a floor named "Floor X" not related to production of the product subject to certification, that has a total electricity connection value of 200 kVA, according to the fuse in the electricity panel, then you can enter "Floor X" in column A and "200 000" in column B.
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