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Equipment
safety in Australia and New Zealand
Electrical safety,
including equipment safety, in Australia and New Zealand is regulated by
each Australian state and territory and New Zealand separately.
For this reason, it is
best to contact the regulator of the Australian state,
territory or New Zealand in which you wish to conduct business to ask
specific questions about equipment safety.
Note that regulators can
assist you with enquiries about the equipment approval process, but if you
need technical assistance you may need to engage an electrical compliance
or engineering consultant.
Equipment Approvals
Regulations and Standards
apply to all household equipment that is sold or offered for sale in
Australia and New Zealand.
Certain types of
equipment, known as prescribed equipment (or declared articles), must also
have a certificate of approval before they can be sold in Australia or New
Zealand.
Prescribed electrical equipment
The list of equipment that
must have a certificate of approval before sale is in Appendix E of the
Australian/New Zealand Standard 4417.2:1996 Marking of electrical
products to indicate compliance with regulations, Part 2: Specific
requirements for electrical safety regulatory applications. (link to
SAI global)
If you wish to sell one of
the listed items you must submit an application for a certificate of
approval for the item. An application generally includes:
-
an application form and
fee;
-
photographs of the item;
and
-
a test report from a
test laboratory accredited by the National Association of Testing
Authorities (NATA) or another laboratory approved by the regulator.
Contact the regulator the
Australian state, territory or New Zealand in which you wish to conduct
business for further information, application forms and fee schedules.
Regulators
Once an item of equipment
has a certificate of approval that allows it to be sold in one Australian
state, territory or New Zealand it can then be sold in all other
jurisdictions.
Three Australian states
and New Zealand currently administer full certificate of approval schemes:
South Australia also
administers a certificate of approval scheme for companies based in South
Australia only. See the regulator website,
Office of the Technical Regulator for more details.
Marking
of approved equipment
Once equipment is approved
it must be correctly marked to indicate approval. You must mark the
equipment with the approval mark as indicated on your certificate of
approval.
For companies that have
Australian registered businesses or agents the approval mark may be the
Regulatory Compliance mark (RCM). If you choose to use this mark you must
register with
http://www.standards.com.au/rcm and also indicate the use of this mark
on your application for a certificate of approval.
For more information
contact the regulator in the state or Territory in which you wish to
conduct business.
Non-prescribed equipment
If the equipment you wish
to sell does not appear on the prescribed equipment (declared articles)
listed in AS/NZS 4417.2 you do not need to obtain a certificate of approval
before sale.
However, each state,
territory and New Zealand has legislative requirements that equipment must
still be safe before it is sold or used. AS/NZS 3820 Essential safety
requirements for low voltage electrical equipment (link to SAI global)
is a Standard that can be used as a basis for showing compliance to this
legislation.
You can still submit the
equipment for a certificate of approval (or certificate of suitability) as
a way to show that the equipment has met legislative requirements. |
