Overview
Electrical equipment (includes appliances) are not UL- or FM- approved or have been altered in a manner that compromises the UL- or FM- approval.
As previously stated electrical equipment, devices, and appliances must be UL- or FM- approved. In addition, they must be used in accordance with their certification and not altered by the user. Alteration or use that is not in accordance with the certification would prompt citation of this checklist item. However, it must be recognized that in some research applications, electrical equipment will be built or altered to meet the research needs.
In that case, this checklist item is only cited when equipment in accordance with its certification is possible and feasible but the user has opted to do their own thing. In other cases, you may also have to use some judgment. For example, a household microwave oven is not listed for laboratory use. However, in a low hazard application we would not likely cite this as a violation. But we would cite it for a high hazard operation such as acid refluxing.
- Exhibit A - a home made extension cord constructed with knockout box instead of a housing with solid construction.
- Exhibit B - Single plug adapters must be properly grounded to the outlet if used. For this plug to be used, the cover plate’s screw must be removed and re-fastened through the metal loop on the bottom of the adapter.
- Exhibit C - a lab-built piece of equipment that is serving a research purpose. It is adequately guarded and shows no obvious deficiencies. This would not be cited. The other photos are examples of equipment being used outside of their intended and approved use, and which would be cited.
- Exhibit D - heater bands being used in an experiment. The top band is properly plugged into the power converter. The lower band has been plugged directly into a RPT. This piece per the manufacturer must be used in conjunction with the power converter. As a side note, the power converter was plugged into a RPT and that item should be cited using checklist item ELE07.