EU Low Voltage Directive Essential Safety Hazards

Start the hazard file with the three Annex I groups. First, record the essential characteristics that users need for safe use and mark them on the equipment or include them in accompanying documents when marking is not possible. Second, confirm that the equipment and component parts can be safely assembled and connected. Third, show that the design and manufacture provide protection against the hazards in Annex I points 2 and 3 for the intended application and adequate maintenance.

The Commission LVD Guide explains that these safety objectives are the Directive's essential requirements. It also clarifies that the LVD is a total harmonised safety directive: it covers all safety aspects of electrical equipment, not only electrical risks.

Annex I point 2 requires technical measures for hazards that originate in the equipment. The electrical-contact objective covers physical injury or other harm from direct contact with live parts and indirect contact with accessible parts that become live in a fault condition. The guide identifies insulation of live parts as one means of protection and links insulation back to the requirement that it be suitable for foreseeable conditions.

The same Annex I point also covers dangerous temperatures, arcs, and radiation, non-electrical dangers revealed by experience, and insulation. The guide treats temperatures, arcs, and radiation as non-electrical hazards for this purpose, while noting that radiation coverage is limited to health and safety of persons, domestic animals, and property and does not supersede EMC disturbance requirements except where safety is involved.

Annex I point 3 addresses hazards caused by external influences on the equipment. The equipment must meet expected mechanical requirements, resist non-mechanical influences in expected environmental conditions, and avoid endangering people, domestic animals, or property in foreseeable overload conditions.

The guide gives practical examples: an adequate housing can be needed to withstand mechanical influences, outdoor equipment should account for rain, and cables can need overcurrent protection because exceeding their maximum current can create dangerous situations.

The hazard record should make the Annex I coverage visible without relying on generic compliance statements. For each product model, keep a hazard table that names the product configuration, voltage rating, intended application, environmental assumptions, component interfaces, applied harmonised standards or alternative technical solutions, tests, inspections, and residual limits communicated to users.

Where harmonised standards are used, the LVD gives presumption of conformity only for the safety objectives covered by those standards or parts of standards. The LVD Guide states that where harmonised, international, or national standards are not applied, the technical documentation should describe the solutions used to satisfy the safety objectives.