New IEC 61786-1 – Guidance for measuring magnetic fields

Power grid issues are receiving more attention from Standards Developers lately, with emphasis on the Smart Grid.  At the same time, there’s definitely more attention on the human issues relating to the safety of our power generation and transportation as well.  So IEC committee 106 is in the process of revamping the IEC 61786 standard on measuring low-frequency magnetic and electric fields where human exposure is an issue.  It is creating two parts to replace the original 1st Edition from 1998.  And the IEC 61786-1 is now available.  This document is titled “Measurement of DC magnetic, AC magnetic and AC electric fields from 1 Hz to 100 kHz with regard to exposure of human beings – Part 1: Requirements for measuring instruments.”  Part 2 (still under development) will cover the actual measurement procedures.

The new Part 1 covers:

  • Terminology
  • Requirements for field meter specifications
  • Methods of calibration
  • Requirements for instrumentation uncertainty
  • General characteristics of fields
  • Operational principles of instrumentation

Not only that, but the document has fantastic color photographs covering a variety of instruments and configurations.  An extensive Annex section gives you additional information on calibration methods, magnetic field meters, electric field meters, the impact of humidity on measurements, units used, and so on.  You’ll also appreciate the extensive bibliography.

This new configuration for the IEC 61786 information was implemented in order to update the standard in general.  But the committee also wanted to provide the user with more practical information than was possible using the old format.  The IEC 61786 1st Edition is still showing up as current in the catalogs.  We assume that it will be replaced once the Part 2 is issued, since the Part 1 is only a partial replacement of the standard.

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Claudia Bach

Claudia Bach is the President of Document Center Inc. and a world-wide recognized expert on Standards and Standards Distribution. You can connect with her on Google+

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