MET Labs participated in a meeting this week of the United States National Committee of the IECEE to discuss a number of issues.
E3 Program
There was much discussion about the E3 Program (Energy Efficiency, Energy Performance & Energy Consumption), covered in Compliance Today previously.
The U.S. initially opposed the E3 Program because there is a lack of harmonization. As it stands, there is no assured reciprocity and there is no certificate issued, just a Statement of Test Results (STR). It is up to the reader of the STR to decide to accept or not.
IEC 62368-1
UL and CSA have recently published harmonized versions of IEC 62368-1. It will, however, likely be a long time before this becomes a NRTL standard due to OSHA’s workload and their likely objection to its inclusion of hazard-based analysis. Major labs will list to it, but if a product is going into the workplace, then 60950 or 60065 must still be used.
Only the U.S., Sweden and Denmark have adopted 62368-1 in the Scheme per the CB website. Canada is to participate soon, as is France. The Netherlands may participate soon.
More about IEC 62368-1 is found in this Compliance Today post.
China EMC
China is not currently accepting EMC within the Scheme. China’s objection may be that this was once voluntary and that the Scheme adopted EMC as mandatory and have not given China time to revise its standards.
Motors
At least one manufacturer thinks there is a need for motors to be in the safety CB Scheme. The only place a motor standard is covered is within the EMC Scheme. NEMA’s 1MG Section is continuing its conversation regarding the inclusion of electric motors as part of the E3 Program.
Next meetings are May 22-23, 2012 in Vancouver, Canada, and August 7-8, 2012 in Orange County, California.
See a list of participating CB Scheme countries, and get a quote for CB Scheme testing.
