•The paper is about the techno-economic assessment of circular economy requirements for products.•The research is related to the Methodology for Ecodesign of Energy-related Products.•It is suggested to systematically include externalities, lifetime and material consumption.•These improvements enhance the uptake of circular economy requirements in the Ecodesign policy.•Some practical applications of the theoretical discussions are presented. At European Union level, the 2015 Circular Economy Action Plan establishes challenging yet achievable policy objectives. In this context, it is expected that a key role could be played by the Ecodesign Directive, among the most renowned legislative initiatives addressing the environmental impact of products. This policy has the potential to implement the circular economy principles into actual requirements at product level. To this extent, improvements are needed to the supporting analytical tool, the Methodology for Ecodesign of Energy-related Products. This paper focuses on the techno-economic aspects of this methodology, devising improvements such as the systematic inclusion of a) externalities (by proposing to account them as environmental fees to be added in the consumer life cycle costing), b) lifetime (by proposing to switch from the life cycle cost to the 'equivalent annual cost') and c) material consumption aspects (by proposing to determine the life cycle cost as a function of energy and material). These methodological improvements are expected to contribute enhancing the uptake of circular economy requirements in the Ecodesign policy, notably on product durability, on product reparability and capability to be refurbished, on spare parts availability, on product recyclability and on the reuse of secondary raw materials and/or components.