Electronic – Testing and safety requirements for selling homemade electricals

electricalproduction-testingsafety

I am currently researching and designing electrical audio equipment, example devices:

  • Tube and solid state guitar amplifiers
  • Guitar effects pedals
  • Mixing / filtering units
  • Synthesizers

Some of these devices will be mains powered and some low voltage.

For context I am in the UK and hold a Masters' degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

I have had friends, relatives etc approach me to ask if they can buy some of my products.

At present I do not plan to make a business out of this but it could be a possible future consideration.

The price I would be selling the equipment at would not warrant £1000's of test certification, as I do not have the money for this I would prefer not to sell if test houses are the only option.

My primary concerns are safety and liability.

What safety standards do I need to comply with and can I self certify?

Can I remove / reduce liability by selling as a kit product / prototype?

I notice people online selling amplifier kits, presumably they are not liable for incorrect wiring / use.

Best Answer

For compliance to EU requirements and to carry the 'CE' marking you can self-certify without using a testing agency, and to do so you need to create a declaration of conformity, which authorities can request at any time, and maintain a technical file which documents your evaluation of the design and manufacturing process' ability to maintain compliance - so that'd include some quality plan to periodically check production capabilities, and individual item testing if justified. It's up to you to determine all the requirements that are relevant to your particular application.

I'd follow suggestions to use an off-the-shelf power supply that someone else has assumed the responsibility and liability risk for, and maybe just add in some further conditioning and filtering if you're using if for a low noise application. One big reason for this is that demonstrating EMC compliance might be expensive in itself, and an off-the-shelf PSU will likely have the input suppression sorted for compliance.