Double insulated

In the electrical appliance manufacturing industry, the following IEC protection classes are defined in IEC 61140 and used to differentiate between the protective-earth connection requirements of devices. These appliances must have their chassis connected to electrical earth.

These appliances have no protective-earth connection and feature only a single level of insulation between live parts and exposed metalwork. If permitted at all, Class 0 items are intended for use in dry areas only. A single fault could cause an electric shock or other dangerous occurrence, without triggering the automatic operation of any fuse or circuit breaker. Sales of such items have been prohibited in much of the world for safety reasons, for example in the UK by Section 8 of The Low Voltage Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 1989 and New Zealand by the Electricity Act. However, equipment of this class is common in 110V countries, and in much of the 220V developing world, whether permitted officially or not. These appliances do not have their chassis connected to electrical earth.

These appliances must have their chassis connected to electrical earth (US: ground) by a separate earth conductor (coloured green/yellow in most countries, green in the US, Canada and Japan). The earth connection is achieved with a 3-conductor mains cable, typically ending with 3-prong AC connector which plugs into a corresponding AC outlet. The basic requirement is that no single failure can result in dangerous voltage becoming exposed so that it might cause an electric shock and that if a fault occurs the supply will be removed automatically (this is sometimes referred to as ADS = Automatic Disconnection of Supply).

A fault in the appliance which causes a live conductor to contact the casing will cause a current to flow in the earth conductor. If large enough, this current will trip an over-current device (fuse or circuit breaker (CB)) and disconnect the supply . The disconnection time has to be fast enough not to allow fibrillation to start if a person is in contact with the casing at the time. This time and the current rating in turn sets a maximum earth resistance permissible. To provide supplementary protection against high-impedance faults it is common to recommend a residual-current device (RCD) also known as a residual current circuit breaker (RCCB), ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI), or residual current operated circuit-breaker with integral over-current protection (RCBO), which will cut off the supply of electricity to the appliance if the currents in the two poles of the supply are not equal and opposite.

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