The replies so far seem to suggest that a VA rating is almost meaningless. Rich says 15W will do it, and John quite rightly points out that a small spark will do it too.
I don't think product standards assure a safe device, only that it complies with a set of requirements arrived at by consensus by a few participants on a committee. Is that set of requirements sufficient? I think that depends on what is deemed as sufficient protection from hazards arising from a product used as intended over its service lifetime. Example: I measure and determine that an electrolytic capacitor temperature is compliant with the standard, but what happens when that capacitor eventually fails due to large ripple current and then overheats and catches fire. That's a single fault condition (a component fault), but it's a scenario the standards today do not address, at least not the standards I've worked with. Shorting that capacitor during type testing does not simulate that condition. Ralph McDiarmid Product Compliance Engineering Solar Business Schneider Electric -----Original Message----- From: John Woodgate [mailto:jmw1...@btinternet.com] Sent: Wednesday, June 08, 2016 1:38 PM To: Ralph McDiarmid <ralph.mcdiar...@schneider-electric.com> Cc: EMC-PSTC@LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG Subject: RE: [PSES] fire safety test methods for different country standards Tried a flint and steel recently? Lots of history! >-----Original Message----- >From: Ralph McDiarmid [mailto:ralph.mcdiar...@schneider-electric.com] >Sent: Wednesday, June 8, 2016 5:27 PM >To: EMC-PSTC@LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG >Subject: Re: [PSES] fire safety test methods for different country standards > The expectation is, I think, that a power-limited >device cannot ignite something. I assume there is lots of history that >assumption. > >Ralph McDiarmid ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service. ______________________________________________________________________ ________________________________ This message was scanned by Exchange Online Protection Services. ________________________________ - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <emc-p...@ieee.org> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieee-pses.org/emc-pstc.html Attachments are not permitted but the IEEE PSES Online Communities site at http://product-compliance.oc.ieee.org/ can be used for graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://www.ieee-pses.org/list.html (including how to unsubscribe) List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <sdoug...@ieee.org> Mike Cantwell <mcantw...@ieee.org> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: <j.bac...@ieee.org> David Heald: <dhe...@gmail.com>
