Approval of electrical equipment: bodies, seals and labels

In the province of Québec, the selling, renting or installation of electrical equipment that has not been approved is prohibited. All electrical equipment used in an electrical installation or intended to consume energy from such an installation shall be approved for the use for which it is intended.

The installation of electrical equipment which is not approved—especially overcurrent devices such as breakers—may constitute major safety risks. It may even represent a risk of death, in the cases of electrification or fire breaking due to an electrical defect.

The approval procedure is not necessary when the electrical equipment meets at least one of the conditions below:

• It is located upstream from the connecting point.
• It is intended to be interconnected, in accordance with section 84 of the Construction Code.
• It is located upstream from a stand-alone inverter.
• Its power consumption is not more than 100 VA and its voltage is not more than 30 V, except in the case of signs, lighting devices, luminaries, thermostats with heat anticipators, electromedical devices or apparatus installed in a hazardous location.

Approval procedures

There are two specific procedures to have electrical equipment approved: the certification and the special evaluation by the Standards Council of Canada (SCC).

Certification

This procedure is the most used of the two to approve an electrical equipment. Once a certification body has tested the equipment to see if it is compliant with the applicable Canadian standards, a seal is affixed on it.

Electrical equipment compliant with the Canadian standards also bear the indication “c” on the seal, at the 8 ’o clock position. If an equipment does not have that indication, you should contact the certification body to check whether the equipment is compliant with the Canadian standards. It could be a seal that is only used in Canada, so no additional indication is needed.

To know if an equipment is duly certified, here is a non-exhaustive list of the accredited certification bodies and examples of valid certification seals. To get the complete list or more information, please consult the Directory of Accredited Product, Process and Service Certification Bodies on the SCC’s website.

This is the second procedure to have electrical equipment approved. A special evaluation is done at the manufacturer’s plant for specialized equipment or equipment produced in limited quantity.

The accredited inspection body evaluates the equipment according to the SPE-1000 or SPE-3000 standards, both published by the CSA Group. The body confirms its conformity to the applicable Canadian standards by affixing a custom label.

To know if an equipment is duly certified, here is a non-exhaustive list of the accredited certification bodies and examples of valid certification labels.

Other seals could be valid, even if they have differences with the ones below, such as different colours or textual details. To get the complete list of the valid labels and learn about the certification scope of the inspection bodies, please consult the Inspection Bodies section of the Directory of Accredited Bodies on the SCC’s website.