Three Standards covering the safety inspection and testing of electrical equipment, including second-hand and repaired equipment, are being revised. The public comment period is to start late November and publication is scheduled for the first half of 2010.
'There's an increasing need for repaired and second-hand equipment to be verified and tested,' says Peter Morfee, Principal Technical Advisor/Senior Policy Advisor at the Ministry of Economic Development. 'Electrical equipment is getting more complicated and the expected lifetime of equipment is reducing.'
'The review of AS/NZS 3760, AS/NZS 5761, and AS/NZS 5762 will ensure that consumers can be more confident that electrical equipment is safe when it has been tested and marked in accordance with these Standards. There will be some products that will not be able to be tested and marked as safe, because the safety of new products has improved so much that it would not be appropriate to mark the old equipment as being safe.'
Review of AS/NZS 3760:2003
Use of the Standard for In-service safety inspection and testing of electrical equipment AS/NZS 3760:2003 reduces the risk of electrical shock to users of electrical equipment. The Standard provides the overall method and process for inspecting and testing electrical equipment that is designed for connection to the mains supply by a flexible cord and plug.
The Department of Labour and the Ministry of Economic Development are sponsoring a review of the Standard. 'AS/NZS 3760 will be a lot more definitive and will include a lot more information to address electrical shock more accurately,' says Peter.
The review will consider the following points:
- enhancing user safety by adding new information for the testing of three phase residual current devices (RCDs) and electrical equipment
- updating the Standard to reflect the impact of new technology in electrical equipment
- the need for a means of determining the knowledge and skills of a 'competent person'
- corrections and editorial improvements from user feedback.
Review of AS/NZS 5761:2005 and AS/NZS 5762:2005
In-service safety inspection and testing of electrical equipment – Second-hand electrical equipment prior to sale AS/NZS 5761:2005 covers the inspection and testing process to be followed prior to sale of second-hand electrical equipment. In-service safety inspection and testing of electrical equipment – Repaired electrical equipment AS/NZS 5762:2005 covers the testing and inspection process following the repair of electrical equipment.
AS/NZS 5761:2005 and AS/NZS 5762:2005 are intended to ensure that when electrical equipment re-enters service users have confidence that the risk of harm or damage from electrical shock, mechanical injury, or electrical fire has been minimised.
Energy Safety is sponsoring a major review of AS/NZS 5761:2005 and AS/NZS 5762:2005 to consider the following points:
- expanding the Standards to improve the safety of users through a more thorough evaluation of the safety of second-hand or repaired electrical equipment, by extending the coverage beyond electrical shock by including mechanical injury, fire, burns, and other hazards
- aligning the Standards with safety risk factors identified by Energy Safety to give consumers greater confidence in the overall safety of electrical equipment sold or repaired
- amending the Standards to confirm the safety of electrical equipment marked to show whether:
- the equipment complies with the identified safety factors
- the equipment fails to comply with the identified safety factors
- determining for any particular electrical equipment the types of hazards that it might possess and the types of safety features that should be verified
- for second-hand items the principle will be that electrical equipment will not pose any greater hazard to the new owner than the item would have posed in the hands of a reasonably careful owner from new
- for repaired items the principles will be expanded to also verify that the repair has restored the repaired safety features to those of the equipment when new
- editorial corrections and adding material considered necessary.
The committee includes representatives of the following nominating organisations: New Zealand Electric Fence Energiser Manufacturers' Standards Group, Hire Industry Association of New Zealand, Consulting Interests New Zealand, Electro-Technical Association Inc., Schneider New Zealand, JAS-ANZ, Building Services Contractors of New Zealand, Ministry of Economic Development, Department of Labour, Consumer Representative from New Zealand, Energy Safety, as well as a number or Australian organisations.
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