Australian Electrical Safety Standards

[Cloth Ears]

Does anyone know if there's any problems in just building an amplifier and plugging it in (in Australia)? Do the thought police come and raid you ?

But seriously, if your house burns down and someone notices your amp, does this invalidate your policy if it doesn't have some sort of certificate or other?

Of course, it would never happen to me, but it would be good to know.

[suzyj]

You don't need any special qualifications to work on equipment that's connected to the mains, as long as you stay on the right side of the powerpoint.

It's important though (for your own peace of mind) to ensure all mains wiring is done to comply with Australian Standards.

Of course the standards aren't available without paying through the nose, but much of what's in there is fairly self-evident stuff.

A few starters:

• Make sure you use adequate wire gauges
• Insulate live bits
• Maintain separation between high and low voltage sections
• Use standard wire colours (brown=line, blue=neutral, green/yellow=ground)
• Earth the chassis

In general, look at professionally made kit and copy, and if you're unsure, ask.

Cheers,

Suzy

[engee]

As an added thought take your finished work to a qualified electrician and have them check it out. javascript:smilie('')

[Cloth Ears]

Oh. I thought there was some new requirement that, officially, you needed any mains equipment certified as mains compliant. If that's not a requirement, then it saves the expense of someone else having to look at it.

[suzyj]

Some workplaces have requirements like that, for OHS reasons. My work, for example, tries to bring in a rule that all equipment had to comply with Australian Standards.

Once they realised that it meant rewiring the power supply in pretty much every PC in the place to use AS coloured wires, they quietly dropped the idea.

Cheers,

Suzy

[Cloth Ears]

I've just looked up EnergySafe Victoria, and we do have such a thing in place, but only for registered electrical trades-people. But the figures show it's been working (I guess): 1 death from 2002-2005, compared to at least 5 deaths a year before the requirement came in. I remember we got one of those from the electrician who did the power for our evaporative cooler (but I suspect the person who did our garden lights didn't).

So I've sent off the question to them (ESV) to see what they come back with.

[Cloth Ears]

suzyj,

On a complete OT, I just had a look at your website. When are you going to offer Little Fish bicycles for consumption by the general public?

[jameshillj]

As you are in Melbourne, it may be worth your trouble to speak to Ian Robbie at Redgum Audio in Box Hill and perhaps also get him to test and certify your gear as safe. I know for sure that the insurance companies just love home build thats not okayed! jh

[Cloth Ears]

From EnergySafe Victoria:

AS/NZS60065 specifies the required safety outcomes and tests to confirm these.

AS/NZS3760 deals only with the in-service testing of previously tested and safe equipment not type testing as detailed in AS/NZS60065.

Now all I need to fond out is where to be able to read a copy of these without paying $70 each fro them from saiglobal. If I go ahead with something, then maybe the purchase price would be worth it.

[AudioFreak]

It total depends on which state your in. The rules vary so much between states that you really have to find out the deal in your state and then be aware that should you move interstate, your previously legal gear may not be legal in your new state of residence.