Trans-Tasman electrical appliance safety committee come together in Wellington
EL-002 is the committee at the heart of shaping appliance safety. March saw members of the 39-member committee gather in person and hybrid in Wellington for a productive session.
Online and in-person attendees at the EL-002 committee meeting
We were pleased to host members of a joint AS/NZS and international IEC standards committee, who represent interests in electrical appliance safety. EL-002 Safety of Household and Similar Electrical Appliances and Small Power Transformers and Power Supplies is a standards development committee that helps maintain and improve the AS/NZ standards by adopting relevant IEC standards with or without national variations and updating existing AS/NZ standard to ensure safety of people in New Zealand and Australia. The committee also reviews and provides input to the relevant international standards throughout the IEC ‘parent standards’.
Standards covered by EL-002 are used by manufacturers, regulators, retailers and testing houses to ensure that appliances and power tools that come into New Zealand are constructed and tested properly, safe to use, and approved for sale across the wider trans-Tasman market.
The committee’s focus is on reducing safety risks from household appliances. This includes consideration of personal protection against electric shock, effects of excessive temperature radiation, explosion, moisture resistance, clearances, mechanical stability, hazardous moving parts, and protection against fire.
The committee includes diverse representation from across the supply chain including industry and government, accreditation and certification bodies, consumer and retailer interests, manufacturers and engineers, testing organisations and electrical regulation.
EL-002 is one of the three trans-Tasman committees whose secretariat is managed by Standards New Zealand as opposed to Standards Australia. Committee meetings are held either in Australia or New Zealand on a rotational basis, and we were proud to host their latest meeting on site at MBIE’s Stout Street offices.
Each committee member volunteers their valuable time including to attend the three day committee meeting twice a year. This time was spent covering the latest developments from the IEC, with one delegate relaying their learnings from attending a recent plenary in the United States and the other from attending a meeting in London for a relevant working group. A number of technical inquiries in relation to the standards relevant to the scope of EL-002 were discussed along with current standards under revision and amendment and the work programme over the next six months. The team are currently reviewing standards under the AS/NZS 60335 and AS/NZS 62841 series and a number of them are cited in the Electrical (Safety) Regulations 2010. Diverse appliances are the subject of discussion, such as deep fat fryers, storage water heaters, transportable mitre saws and chain saws, tumble dryers, pedestal fans and heaters.
Join the committee and represent New Zealand
With 25 Australian participating members, nine Australian observing members and five New Zealand participating members, the committee is keen to welcome new members from New Zealand interested in maintaining appliance safety standards.
If you are interested in learning more drop an email to joints@standards.govt.nz quoting ‘EL-002’ and one of the team will be in touch.