Electrical Installations in Hazardous Areas

The installation standard IEC/EN 60079-14 will be revised by the year 2007. With the introduction of equipment protection levels (EPL), the selection criteria for electrical equipment will be redefined. The risk assessment carried out may make it possible to use a piece of equipment with a higher or even a lower EPL. The equipment protection level has to be entered in the zone drawings together with the defined zones and temperature classes. Preparing the information in this manner enables the designer and/or installation contractor to make reliably correct selections of the equipment to be used. The expected changes to the standard will also be discussed, as will the consequences of these changes for the installers and users. Special emphasis will be accorded to critical components, such as flameproof cable entries and cable selection. Tests carried out by Germany´s PTB (Federal Institute of Physics and Metrology) with direct entries into flameproof enclosures using various cable types have produced some amazing results. The cable types used and the results will be presented.