Electromagnetic compatibility of building cables

There is at the moment little accepted guidance available to installers on good installation practice for achieving EMC. Existing EMC standards, for example, specify only immunity and emissions levels for products: they do not address the way products should be installed and the precautions that need to be taken to avoid interference in an installed system. This creates particular difficulties for the installer, for if after installation, CE-marked products suffer from or cause electrical interference, i.e. they do not comply with the EMC Directive, then there is a risk that it will be the installer who takes the blame and is prosecuted. The paper describes experimental work which addresses an important aspect of installation, namely segregation and separation of power and signal cables. The aim is to establish what the separation distance should be between different types of power and signal cable, including unscreened, screened, twist pair, MICC and armoured cable, connected to electronic products that comply with CENELEC´s generic EMC standards. The information will help systems installers to meet the requirements of the EMC Directive, and will also help to ensure that electronic and computer installations in buildings are reliable and cost-effective