Certification (General)
A person may apply for Australian certification of electrical equipment to an Australian Certifier under the Recognised External Certification Scheme (RECS) or a Regulatory Authority (RA).
A Certificate is issued by a RECS or RA to claim that an item of equipment has been independently assessed and shown to meet the relevant standards and is electrically safe.
There are two types of certificates:
- Certificate of Conformity: for In-Scope electrical equipment risk Level 3. The Certificate of Conformity is also known as ‘Certificate of Approval’.
- Certificate of Suitability (voluntary): for In-Scope electrical equipment Level 1 or Level 2.
Note: All Certificates must be issued in accordance with the Equipment Safety Rules.
A person owning a Certificate of Conformity or Certificate of Suitability is identified as a Certificate Holder. The physical location of the Certificate Holder can be anywhere in the world.
Note: A Certificate Holder is not necessarily a Responsible Supplier, and the certificate alone does not give authority to sell electrical equipment in Australia or to mark the product with the Regulatory Compliance Mark (RCM). In addition to the certificate, electrical equipment must be registered in the EESS by a Responsible Supplier and mark the product with the RCM in accordance to AS/NZS 4417.1 and AS/NZS 4417.2 Marking of electrical products to indicate compliance with regulations – General rules for use of the mark.
Once a Certificate is issued, the details of the product (In-scope level, relevant safety standard, tradenames, models, ratings, issue date, expiry dates, etc.) are uploaded onto the EESS Certification Database. To verify your product has a Certificate, click here for the public search of certificates.
Only certificates uploaded to the EESS Certification Database can be used by Registered Responsible Suppliers for the registration of Level 3 and Level 2 equipment through the EESS Registration Database.
Certificate Holders have the ability to lock their certificate with a password. It is an expectation that Responsible Suppliers have a working relationship with certificate holders.
To gain Certification for an electrical product:
An application for certification to one of the Certifiers includes (for full details of all required documentation see Appendix B of the Equipment Safety Rules):
- A test report from an approved testing entity showing compliance to the relevant standard for the product,
- The equipment itself or colour images showing the internal and external construction of the equipment;
- Technical documentation describing the item
- Instruction for the safe use of the equipment
- Other documents as required by the certifier and as per the Equipment Safety Rules; and
- The required application fee.
Contact the certifier of your choice to determine process for making an application for certification and their fee structure.
Note: Applicants for a certificate may need to engage the services of a consultant (who meets the definition of a Suitably Qualified Person in the Equipment Safety Rules) to assist them in compiling appropriate documents required to make an application for certification. This would be the situation where the applicant for certification is not aware of the requirements or technical detail of information required to be supplied to obtain a certificate.