Product testing NRTL compliance

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paulengr

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jim dungar said:
For the most part, even though there are competing testing labs, there is only a single set of standards created by UL and used by the other firms.
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CSA and FM make their own. There are also several IEEE, NEMA, IEC, and ISO which are all independent. And ANSI and ASTM and ICEA. The odd one is Pennsylvania has a couple specific standards unique to them.

UL.com only tests to UL.org standards. FM is similar. The others will test to almost any standard. Where this matters is if for instance you use an ETL part in a piece of equipment UL will NOT List it but anyone else will.

The only one to watch out for is CE. Companies are allowed to self certify under that one if they use “similar” materials!

The other odd one is that MSHA has a testing lab for mining equipment but it is NOT recognized as an NRTL by OSHA.

By way of examples there are some portable cables that are NEMA standards that are Listed by CSA. For instance DLO is NEVER UL stamped. DLO is a NEMA standard although NEMA is a pass through for the underlying ICEA standards in this case. It is therefor allowed by NEC but not a UL standard nor a UL Listing.

UL heavily promotes the myth that they are the only game in town and charge a huge premium for it. While I agree they are pretty good the idea that they are the one and only standard is simply not true.
 
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jim dungar

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paulengr said:
CSA and FM make their own.
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I did not mean to imply there were not different standards. However there are few if any that compete with each other. Even though you may have different listing companies to chose from you do not need to worry about how their test standards may be different. A molded case breaker tested by ETL used the same standards as one tested by UL.
 
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paulengr

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jim dungar said:
I did not mean to imply there were not different standards. However there are few if any that compete with each other. Even though you may have different listing companies to chose from you do not need to worry about how their test standards may be different. A molded case breaker tested by ETL used the same standards as one tested by UL.
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By the UL standard yes. But there are significant gotchas in many cases. There is a big difference between UL 489, 1066, and supplemental breaker standards, and those are significantly different from IEC standards. And there is still ANSI and NEMA that are the original UL 1066. For instance with motor protection an IEC class 10 is similar to a NEMA class 20 but there are differences.
 
S'mise

S'mise

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Location
Michigan
The go-to place for electricians and inspectors to verify a listing is the UL white book.

The task of verification seems to be more complicated than it needs to be.
It'd be nice to have one reference location instead of researching multiple sources.

I'm a controls guy who seldom deals with this stuff, but I appreciate taping your knowledge on this confusing subject.
 
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paulengr

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S'mise said:
The go-to place for electricians and inspectors to verify a listing is the UL white book.

The task of verification seems to be more complicated than it needs to be.
It'd be nice to have one reference location instead of researching multiple sources.

I'm a controls guy who seldom deals with this stuff, but I appreciate taping your knowledge on this confusing subject.
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UL no longer publishes the white book. That was obsoleted years ago.
 
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paulengr

Senior Member
Dennis Alwon said:
NC used to have a listing of the acceptable 3rd party agencies. I have not found it but I have found this interesting pdf
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Interesting that it stresses Listed. UL lists several items (hardware) that are not Listed. Enclosures follow requirements in NEC but unless they are wet location they aren’t a Listed. For instance panel boards which are in that file are Listed but it’s only the equipment not the box. Hence you can buy and install retrofits or mount in custom enclosures. Common to see small panel boards in MCC prepared spaces.
 
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