Equipment certification

For PV equipment of any kind to be used in countries with robust standards and enforcement it must be tested by a recognized testing laboratory before allowed to be used in electrical installations. Equipment is tested against challenging standards for how a product should perform under a variety of different conditions to make sure that the product will not cause harm to users, start a fire, fail prematurely, or damage other equipment to which it is connected. This work can be expensive for manufacturers, but it keeps low-quality and dangerous products from flooding the market and all of the problems that this would create. The details of these different certifications can become quite complicated, but when selecting equipment to be used in a PV installation a reputable manufacturer should be sought out and the specifications sheet for a product can should be examined to make sure that the product bears one or more of the logos of these recognized testing laboratories. The logo may also be followed by a specific testing standard like UL 1703 or IEC 61215.

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  Underwriters laboratories

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  International Electrotechnical Commission

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  CSA group

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  Electrical Testing Laboratory

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  TÜV Rheinland

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  International Organization for Standardization

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  Conformité Européenne