Inta manufacturing partner RBM has chalked up a European first, becoming the only company in Europe to date to achieve PEP EcoPassport certification for its mechanically operated thermostatic radiator controls.
The certification puts independently verified environmental data behind a product UK installers already know and fit every day. It covers RBM’s thermostatic heads, thermostatic valves and lockshield valves, including the components behind Inta’s i-Therm TRV range.
TRVs are hardly niche. The English Housing Survey found them among the most common heating controls in England, present in 89 per cent of homes with non-storage heating controls.
While PEP EcoPassport may be less familiar, what it provides is straightforward. Based on the international ISO 14025 standard, it measures a product’s environmental impact and independently verifies the findings. For specifiers, that means there is proper data to support the product choice when a project calls for it, including environmental criteria and building certification schemes such as LEED.
Independent testing found that the certified kit’s total carbon footprint over its 20-year lifespan is around 6.4kg of CO2 – roughly equivalent to a single 25-mile car journey.
The potential savings are substantial too. Tests found that TRVs could cut heating energy use by around 18% compared with manual valves. A back-of-an-envelope estimate puts that at roughly
£2,100 in gas savings over 20 years for a typical gas-heated home at today’s prices. This assumes properly used TRVs across the home, with savings varying by property and heating habits.
An RBM spokesperson said: “This certification is about making the environmental impact of our products measurable. Rather than asking people to take an environmental claim at face value, the information is there for designers and specifiers to use.
“To become the first company in Europe to achieve this for mechanically operated thermostatic control systems is an important milestone for RBM.”
Stuart Gizzi, CEO of Inta, said: “Installers who have been fitting our i-Therm TRV for years know that it’s a great product and nothing about the job on the radiator changes. What changes is the amount of proof sitting behind it.
“RBM has done the work and put proper data behind a product that, if it is doing its job properly, most people should never really have to think about once it has been fitted.”
The certification is the latest milestone in a relationship between Inta and RBM that began in 2011, when the two businesses started working together on heat interface unit technology for the UK market. That collaboration eventually led to the HIPER range and, in 2024, HIPER II became the first heat interface unit to pass BESA’s Regime 3 test.
More than a decade later, the partnership is still producing industry firsts.
For Inta, it comes back to a simple principle: good specification should not become a race to shave a few pounds off the products people are least likely to notice. It means knowing what you are fitting, understanding what sits behind it and choosing components you can trust long after the installer has left the site.
The full passport is available to view on the PEP EcoPassport database at pep-ecopassport.org, under registration number 0325-00001-V01.01-EN.
For more information on Inta’s range of TRVs, visit: intatec.co.uk.
