Gert, everyone
The issue of “standard environments” crops up every now and again and it is not a simple issue. Product committees describe their environments in ways that suit their products. They all have different ideas and there is no central control. When the generic emission standards were written in the late 1980s there were already some standards defining “environments” or types of locations - or inferred types of locations. The generic standards are not consistent with those already existing at that time: ITE in a commercial location needs to comply only with Class A limits of EN 55022 whereas a product covered by the generic standards should comply with the equivalent of Class B limits in the same location. The European Commission via the EMC Working Party asked CENELEC to look into the possibility of rationalisation, and CENELEC provided a report to the 14th meeting of the EMC Working Party held in June 2008. The document reference is EMC_14_08 and those in Europe may be able to get a copy from their national administrations (Government departments). This identified 11 emission standards and compared requirements. The EMC WP discussed the findings and concluded that rationalisation was not feasible, especially as most of the standards are parallel-voted international standards. The Dresden agreement requires that these are identical between the two versions unless there is negative vote in Europe. New work and proposed changes on these standards also have to be offered to IEC in the first instance. Furthermore, any change would involve either a relaxation or tightening of some limits (or a combination) and that would always be unacceptable to one party or another. However it is not complete anarchy, and Guide 24 states: 3.3 Drafting of a Product EMC standard 3.3.1 General A product EMC Standard should, to the maximum possible extent, align with the applicable generic EMC Standards; if not, all deviations from the generic EMC standards shall be fully justified and the rationale shall be given, e.g. in a separate document or, preferably, in the introduction of the standard or in an informative annex to it. So the generic emission standards do provide standard environments for defining limits, just 2 as you suggest :-). The new editions of the guides are not set in stone and will be considered for updating in the future. Anyone in Europe can suggest improvements to their national committees that, subject to national agreement, could be proposed to CENELEC. I hope this explanation provides some background. Best wishes Brian Brian Jones Independent EMC Consultant (and Secretary of CENELEC TC210, but writing in a personal capacity in respect of the above) ________________________________ From: ce-test, qualified testing bv - Gert Gremmen [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 04 January 2010 13:10 To: Brian Jones; [email protected] Subject: RE: CENELEC Guides 24 and 25 third editions Best Wishes for 2010 to all on this list ! Cenelec missed a chance in Guide 24 (again) to guide us on how to apply environments in the creation of standards. No definition is given (and not even a clue) on what to understand under “industrial” vs “residential, commercial and light industrial” environments. A few pages further (20), -to increase confusion- these environments are called Class A and Class B without further explanation. I suggest that if a list of definitions is provided, instead of the phrase “electromagnetic compatibility” that “Industrial” and “residential, commercial and light industrial” environments are defined. Possibly Cenelec may invest some time in creating a set of standard environments that may be considered defining limits for. (I suggest just 2). Or am I mistaken, and is this not the competence of Cenelec ……? Regards, Ing. Gert Gremmen [email protected] www.cetest.nl Kiotoweg 363 3047 BG Rotterdam T 31(0)104152426 F 31(0)104154953 Van: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Namens Brian Jones Verzonden: Monday, January 04, 2010 12:14 PM Aan: [email protected] Onderwerp: CENELEC Guides 24 and 25 third editions Everyone For those who are involved in complying with European EMC standards and the EMC Directive, updated versions of these guides are now available free of charge on the CENELEC website at http://www.cenelec.eu/NR/rdonlyres/8CDD 2E7-8F9B-4EB7-A877-E490651F5C26/0/CLC_Guide24_Ed3_December2009.pdf and http://www.cenelec.eu/NR/rdonlyres/1382 600-9226-437C-9E37-8761DCE489FA/0/CLC_Guide25_Ed3_December2009.pdf Best wishes for 2010 Brian Brian Jones Independent EMC Consultant - This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. 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