EN 50156-1 Electrical Equipment for Furnaces and Ancillary Equipment - Part 1: Requirements for Application Design and Installation

The European standard "EN 50156-1 Electrical equipment for furnaces and auxiliary equipment - Part 1: Requirements for the application design and installation" describes the requirements for the application design and installation of electrical equipment, control circuits and safety-related systems for furnaces and their auxiliary equipment operated with solid, liquid or gaseous fuels.

This standard includes requirements to meet the operating conditions of furnaces, to reduce burn hazards and to protect heated systems from damage caused by, for example, overheating. Such furnaces and electrical equipment may be part of a plant such as:

• Water heating systems.
• Steam boiler installations (steam and hot water boilers) and heat recovery steam boilers. The requirements of this standard apply to the electrical equipment of electrically heated steam boilers. Marine vessels and offshore installations are governed by international maritime law and therefore do not fall within the scope of this standard. These requirements may be used for such installations.
• Hot air heaters.
• Hot gas heaters.
• Heat exchanger systems.
• Combustion chambers of stationary turbines.
• Unless another standard is applicable for combined heat and power plants, it is recommended that the requirements of this standard be used.
• This standard can also be used as a reference for electrical equipment requirements for thermo-processing equipment.

The requirements in this standard do not apply to electrical equipment of

• Non-electrically heated appliances and burner control systems for household and similar purposes
• Furnaces that use technologies that convert heat directly into electrical energy
• Combustion chambers of non-stationary drives and turbines
• Central oil supply systems for individual heating devices
• Solid fuel furnaces for domestic heating purposes with a nominal thermal output of up to 1 MW
• Furnaces used to heat process liquids and gases in chemical plants.

This European standard can be used as the basis for requirements placed on electrical equipment for furnaces outside the scope of application.

For the purposes of this standard, the following terms and definitions apply:

• Actuating element refers to a component that causes changes in other electrical circuits or volume flows (e.g. fuel, air) under the influence of changes in the signal. Examples include valves, switches and motors, including their common auxiliaries, as well as, for example, solenoid valves with magnetic actuators and final control elements for direct process control.
• Evaluation refers to the research carried out to assess whether functional safety is provided by the security-related system.
• Auditing refers to the evidence-based systematic and independent examination of whether the defined specifications for the management of functional safety for each lifecycle phase are met.
• Auxiliary circuit refers to electrical circuits for auxiliary functions, such as control circuits (command start, interlock operation), signaling and measuring circuits.
• Component refers to a component part of an electrical device or subsystem, usually specified by function, but used in a variety of applications. These are elements or components within the meaning of the EN 61508-4 standard. Examples include resistors, capacitors, transistors, integrated circuits, printed circuit boards. A component is the smallest element into which a circuit can be subdivided. If a component were to be disassembled, it would lose its physical properties or would not meet the specifications.
• Control circuit refers to the electrical circuit used for operational control and protection of the furnace and power circuits.
• Controller refers to the device connected to the control circuit and used to control the operation of the furnace. Examples are a hand-operated switch, a limit transducer, or a valve.
• Current limiting refers to limiting the electric current to a predetermined maximum value for the defined process by appropriate arrangement of the components in the circuit.
• Diagnostic coverage refers to the proportion of all hardware faults detected by the online diagnostics embedded in the safety-related system. To determine the diagnostic coverage, a fault model that is adequate for the technology in question must be used.

In short, this standard contains requirements for the application design and production of electrical and instrumentation equipment of furnaces, related equipment and systems heated by thermal energy released in the furnace. The important thing here is to ensure the safety of people, property and the environment, to maintain operability and to make maintenance easier and more economical.

Among the numerous testing, measurement, analysis and evaluation studies that our organization has carried out for businesses in various sectors, our organization also provides testing services defined in the standard “EN 50156-1 Electrical equipment for ovens and auxiliary equipment - Part 1: Requirements for application design and installation” with its trained and expert staff and advanced technological equipment.