ECN Electrical Forum
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I often see Electrical equipment here that is made in the US and is not Listed. I understood that the US requires all electrical product to be listed (approved in Canadian) Today I found a product that cannot be locally approved. Made in Lincoln NE.
I also see a lot of temporary power distributions made for rock shows with about 1/2 being approved. Is there a US or State agency that would follow up on a safety complaint from outside their jurisdiction.
In the case of the appliance made in Lincoln, it is also a Safety violation reason it cannot be approved here.

Mikesh:

Listing and approvals, (labels) from an NRTL are not on all items here in the US. Basically, the AHJ has the decision to reject any 'non-labeled' items.

In a perfect world, there would be UL?CSA (or other approved NRTL) labels, on everything, but we are far from a perfect world.

With safety related issues to any unlisted item(s) we have various government agencies that may persue the item & mfg. UL also may investigate items that pose a safety concern.

As to the stage equipment; the responsibility of 'checking' has to fall on the venue management.

The NEC only requires products to be acceptable to the AHJ. A UL, or any NRTL, listing is simply a tool that can be used by the AHJ. And, yes there are some state and local code requirements for UL.

I am not aware of any 'standard' industrial motor that has a UL listing.

Where I live and work, we're close enough to the US, that a lot of people go down to Buffalo to shop for bargains. One of the items that's cheaper are light fixtures. People can go to a Home Depot in the US and buy the exact same fixture down there for 1/4 of the price that the same fixture sells for at a Home Depot in Canada. The problem is that the fixture does not have the approval for use in Canada. I'm sure that many customers think that I'm full of sh** when I tell them that I can't legally install that new fixture in their house.

Even though Canadians and Americans look the same, pretty much speak the same language and live on the same continent, we're still two separate countries.
There's no reasopn for a US lawmaker to impose a requirement on US manufacturers/ importers to have all items approved for sale in Canada.

As to why would an identical product sold in the US not have the approvals for Canada that the same item sold in Canada have? My guess would be that approvals cost money on a per item basis. So there's no desire to pay the money for an item's approval that your company isn't planning on exporting to Canada.

It's just like packaging requirements. Canada requires English and French on the packaging, but the US doesn't. Therefore if you look, many items sold in the US have different packaging then the same item sold in Canada.

Mikesh,
You are aware that the CSA (and maybe others) will come out to your location and inspect and approve an item for you?
I'm not saying that it's cost effective, but it can be done.

Bruce

As your in Victoria you have probably seen this from the the BCSA website:
http://www.safetyauthority.ca/files/Electrical%20Equipment%20Approval%20webpage%20final1.pdf

If its a traveling rock concert company panel somebody may have to make a phone call to the local electrical inspector or WPHS inspector to have them come out and see if they will let "the show go on".