Issue 163 September - October 2024Please note: The issue content below is just a summary of the articles in the printed magazine.
The articles are not available on-line.
Please refer to the printed magazine for the complete article.
COVER STORY
New multifunction installation testers from Fluke
Fluke has launched a new series of multifunction installation testers designed for faster testing and easy report generation.
With a simplified set up, the new 1670 series will revolutionise the way you work says Allen Xie, Fluke’s product manager introducing the new series.
“Upgrading to a new model will help you perform your testing faster and reduce the time you spend on documentation knowing that the data you are collecting is more accurate and assigned correctly in your reports.”
There are three models in the series corresponding with the current 1660 models to make upgrading to the latest testers very easy for familiar users.
Xie says the models offer the same high quality, same durability, but better features.
“They provide all the essential testing to verify proper installation and operation of electrical supply in commercial and residential building and projects while meeting the requirements of IEC 60364-6 and the testing requirements of AS/NZS 3000.”
Fluke has streamlined the user interface to make the setup for testing so much easier. Gone are complex multi-level menus. The new bidirectional interface uses a hierarchical tree topology for clients, sites, distribution boards, circuits and test points, and you can easily customise them using the high-resolution colour touchscreen, a smart device or a PC.
“The new 1673 FC and 1674 FC models allow you to set-up your testing regime for your next project by building a template of the installation in the tester or in the TruTest software then uploading the template into the tester before you go on site. By simulating distribution boards and circuits and sending them to your tester, you can create a complete guide to your testing regime. As you test you simply upload the test data from your tester into the template, eliminating tedious data entry.
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NEWS
Resuscitating compliance
The EWRB’s back-to-front introduction of inspector licence endorsements has exposed MBIE as an incompetent regulator of competence-based licensing and added to criticisms of the poor state of the electrical safety and compliance regimes.
Many practitioners in the industry have long given up on trying to keep abreast of how their work is regulated and are also openly critical of the complexity of the AS/NZS 3000 Wiring Rules which were originally developed by the industry as a guidance option to help installers follow the actual rules that were set in regulation.
The growing chasm between the regulator and the regulated is partly due to the fact that the only time electrical law gets updated is when the bureaucracies want to do it, and they only want to update what they think is important and in a way that suits them.
That is because every review of electrical law to bring about change is driven by a government department and never by the industry. The sciolistic consultation process is typically inadequate, and the responses hardly ever make any change.
If industry organisations were to step up and together drive improvements to how electrical safety and compliance is to be achieved, much of this chasm could be closed.
For example, from a regulatory design standpoint, one area to look at is the way the law addresses electrical safety and the way the law addresses compliance to achieve it. Reconfiguring these two regimes in relation to installation work opens the door to a completely different approach.
As it stands at the moment, the industry is seeing more and more disciplinary and legal action against electricians and electrical contractors where the trigger for the action might be alleged electrical unsafety, but more of the focus and decision making in the prosecution and sentencing process is focussed on non-compliance and inadequate documentation.
Please refer to the printed magazine for the complete article
NEWS
Law changes fail to pass inspection
The first of many changes to classes of registration and the limits of prescribed electrical work (PEW) licensed people can do under a licence are now in force.
As from 1 September 2024, electrical inspectors without a licence endorsement in hazardous areas, medical cardiac protected electrical areas or mains parallel generation systems are now unable to undertake PEW in those newly restricted areas.
This means unendorsed electrical inspectors are now committing an offence if they continue to carry out the PEW of installing, testing, certifying, inspecting and connecting in these areas as they have previously been authorised to do.
As if this problem weren’t enough, the changes to inspection gazetted by the EWRB registrar do not implement the new endorsed licences until the stated commencement date of 1 September 2025, so lawful inspections in these areas are on hold until then.
Changes to other classes of registration will be phased in over the next two years. Electricians can continue to install and certify work in these new endorsed areas, but the EWRB has yet to explain how the inspectors who now appear to have been granted an endorsement are to operate without committing an offence between now and the commencement date.
Industry organisations are not happy with the changes and the way they have been introduced.
In a joint statement from Master Electricians and the New Zealand Electrical Inspectors Association (NZEIA), both organisations say they regretted the absence of meaningful industry engagement prior to drafting and gazetting what they describe as poorly thought out and poorly implemented changes.
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Earthing for outbuildings
Are the risks arising from incorrect MEN earthing at an outbuilding the same as getting it wrong at a main switchboard? Alec Knewstubb, is president of Electrical Safety NZ, and is a New Zealand member of the Standards Australia EL 001 executive committee providing oversight on the development of electrical installation standards. He comments as follows.
Energy Safety’s August 2024 Business Update newsletter included an article about people making connections to supply failing to check that an RoI has been issued where one is required. This obligation is set by ESR 73A (1) (da). The article noted that, “an aspect of high-risk work that is being omitted from RoIs is the inspection of the earthing system of 'outbuildings'”.
It went on to remind practitioners that “the earthing system of any multiple earthed neutral (MEN) switchboard (not only those closest to the point of supply) is mains work. Therefore, this work is high-risk PEW, requiring inspection and an RoI. If an RoI has not been issued, then a connection cannot be completed.”
This reminder is a very welcome, if long-delayed, confirmation of ESNZ’s long-held position. It’s a simple fact that ‘mains work’, as defined in ESR 4, includes work on a ‘main earthing system’, and that ‘main earthing system’ is defined as being comprised of three parts: an earth electrode, an MEN link, and an earthing conductor between them. So any such combination of fittings is a ‘main earthing system’; and any work on it is designated ‘mains work’ for the purposes of risk management.
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NZEIA Community of Practice
Electrical safety might be prescribed in law, but its delivery depends on the capabilities and goodwill of the people that make it happen. Inspector Tony Doyle explains how the New Zealand Electrical Inspectors Association contributes to ongoing learning and professional development beyond the scope of formal training.
As the electrical industry undergoes significant licensing changes, inspectors are finding themselves as the test subjects for the first wave of endorsement reforms. The inspector Community of Practice (CoP) is now grappling with alterations to licensing and non-existent competency requirements for obtaining new endorsements.
The April edition of ElectroLink highlighted widespread concern within the industry about the apparent lack of thorough consultation between the government and key industry stakeholders. For many electrical inspectors, the very poor way the endorsements are being implemented can be overwhelming, leaving inspectors searching for ways to make sense of the noise.
A potential solution can be found in indigenous wisdom and the spiritual concept of belonging, as Owen Eastwood explores in Belonging: The Ancient Code of Togetherness. Eastwood delves into the importance of connecting to something greater than oneself within a group context.
This ethos is embodied by the New Zealand Electrical Inspectors Association (NZEIA), which fosters a strong sense of community among inspectors who are united by their shared passion and commitment to advancing their knowledge and professional practice.
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AS/NZS 3017’s most dangerous test method
Installation isolation
Because it may not always achieve its intention of ensuring normally live parts are dead, AS/NZS 3017’s test method of verifying installation isolation is probably its most dangerous. A description of mains reversal is the easiest way to explain the problem that remains unsolved by this standard which is called up by AS/NZS 3000 to provide test methodologies.
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COVER STORY
What is new with the European machinery directives?
The European Union (EU) has for over three decades legally mandated that many of the products sold there be compliant to its directives. CE marking on a product indicates to the consumer its compliance to the directive(s), giving assurance about the safety of the product.
European directives, particularly those relevant to industrial machinery, are not mandated in New Zealand. Here, the main legislation for machinery safety is the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, which is supported by various regulations and codes of practice. The Act places the onus primarily on businesses to ensure the health and safety of workers.
However, those of us who export machinery into the EU must adhere strictly to these directives. Similarly, many of the machines that New Zealanders import from Europe will be the same or very similar to European models and will therefore most likely still comply to EU directives.
It’s therefore vital that we’re aware of any amendments to these directives, particularly major changes. In the case at hand, we’re currently in a transition phase, where the existing Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC, which has been in force since December 2009, is being phased out. Its replacement is the ‘Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 of the European Parliament and of the Council of Machinery’ which will become law in all member states of the EU on 20 January 2027.
However, as significant as these directives and regulations are, it’s important we understand that they exist in a much larger framework of governing requirements related to machinery. In other words, for a machine to achieve CE marking – which it will need to be sellable in the EU market – it must comply to a whole series of directives and regulations, not just one in isolation.
This article is the first of a two-part series on machinery directives and will consider the broader framework of regulations, including CE marking. The second part, which will appear in a subsequent ElectroLink edition, will focus specifically on the new ‘Machinery Regulation 2023/1230’.
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COVER STORY
Flicker: understanding Its impact
Flicker, more correctly known as temporal light modulation (TLM), refers to the variations in light intensity over time. This phenomenon, which can be either intentional or unintentional, has become a critical issue with the proliferation of LED lighting.
While TLM can be harnessed for various applications such as dimming and data transmission, its unintended effects can be highly irritating and lead to significant implications for human health, safety and overall well-being.
This article could almost make full length just listing and defining all the acronyms involved in the subject matter. TLM, TLA, TLE, TLI, CCF, SVM, the list goes on. However, what it all comes down to is the issue of the modulation of light, whether that be with colour or intensity and how that changes over time.
The entire topic is commonly referred to as flicker, however this term is not technically all-encompassing. Temporal light modulation irritates the human eye and is therefore always perceived as disturbing.
The eye has adapted over millions of years to a gradual increase and decrease in light intensity as experienced in nature. Think of how unsettling a spluttering candle is, that effect is one of the most obvious slow examples of flicker we can experience.
Since the advent of artificial lighting, flicker has gone through rises and falls in its importance to humans, as evidenced by the scientific prolificacy of studies, such as when fluorescent lamps, or CRT monitors (for those that can remember back to those very slow refresh rates of the eighties), were the most common office accessories.
Other cases we may recognise that addressed our need to be wary of TLM as an issue, were all those dramatic proclamations for our movies, television shows and at performance events that warned those suffering from epilepsy about the risk of strobe effects.
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Lighting – tales of conspiracies and dark futures
In a world now full of conspiracy theories, it is a dubious honour that the lighting industry was one of the first industries acknowledged to be involved in a conspiracy to create planned obsolescence within their products. From that first international cartel to an industry now struggling with the advent of long-life LED products, the lighting market is in a constant state of flux as manufacturers and suppliers search for a way forward in a battle between ethics, profits, and a rapid evolution in technology.
The Phoebus cartel was an international organisation formed in 1924 that held domination over the market until 1939 when it was disbanded. This cartel wasn’t made up of companies that have been relegated to the history books, instead it was created by the powerhouses of the industry, a few large names you will recognise as still playing a dominant role in today’s markets, including amongst others, Osram lighting from Germany, Philips from the Netherlands and General Electric from The United States.
The cartel aimed to maximise profits for its members through reducing the number of hours a lamp would operate for. A standard filament lamp in this era was lasting around 1800-2500 hours, however the cartel wished for lamp life to be reduced back to one thousand hours.
To this end, engineering research was channelled to reliably reduce the longevity of the lamps rather than pursuing any technological advancements, as would naturally occur in a competitive market.
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