SPE-1000 Field Evaluation & Special Inspection

SPE-1000 is the CSA Model Code for the field evaluation of electrical equipment. It sets the construction, marking and test requirements an inspection body applies to electrical equipment in the field, in cases where certification of that equipment is impracticable or otherwise unavailable. Equipment that passes receives a field evaluation label. That label is what an Authority Having Jurisdiction looks for before the equipment can be energized and put into service. SPE-1000 is the model code the provincial authorities work from, so a field evaluation label carries across Canada, and in Ontario that authority is the Electrical Safety Authority.

The code has been through six editions since 1994. A field evaluation is done on the specific units the inspector examines, at the place they are installed or at a lab, and it applies to those units only.

No. SPE-1000 is frequently called a certification, and the difference is worth being clear about because it changes what you are buying.

Certification is a program run by an accredited certification body. It means full testing to a product standard plus ongoing factory surveillance, and it produces a mark you are entitled to apply to every unit you build afterwards. A special inspection to SPE-1000 covers the units in front of the inspector on the day. Build another one next year and it needs its own inspection, its own report and its own label.

Both routes end with equipment an inspector will accept. They cost very different amounts depending on how many units you make.

The code is written for situations where a certification program either does not exist or does not make sense:

• Custom-built equipment: One-off machines and control assemblies built for a specific application, where no certification exists for the design.
• Equipment built on a non-repetitive basis: Production runs of no more than 500 units per model, per year, counted nationally rather than per site.
• Imported equipment: Machinery and electrical assemblies built to European or other international practice that arrive in Canada with no Canadian mark on them.
• Equipment already on site: Installed or ready for use, and waiting on acceptance before it can be energized.
• Modified equipment: Certified equipment whose original certification no longer holds after a field modification.

Several categories sit outside the scope of the code and need a different route. The ones that come up most often:

• Medical electrical equipment and systems: Excluded from SPE-1000 and covered instead by SPE-3000. See our SPE-3000 field evaluation page.
• Equipment for hazardous locations: Handled through the hazardous location schemes rather than a general field evaluation.
• Wire, cable and wiring devices: Outside the code entirely, along with components such as switches, relays and timers that need further evaluation as part of a complete assembly.
• High voltage above 46 kV: Excluded.
• Elevators, manlifts and climb assists: Excluded, although their associated control panels can be field evaluated.
• Products an authority has ruled out entirely: ESA names several that cannot be field evaluated in Ontario at all, whatever the code says. Air quality equipment that intentionally produces ozone, swimming pool salt water chlorinators, multimeters, infrared saunas whose heaters carry no component certification, and baby spas all have to go the certification route.

An AHJ can also direct that a particular piece of equipment is not to be field evaluated at all. If you are unsure which side of the line your equipment falls on, ask us before you book anything.

This is the question worth settling first, because the answer is driven almost entirely by volume.

A field evaluation is priced per unit, every unit, every time. Certification is front-loaded and then close to free per unit once the program is in place. If you are building one machine, or ten, field evaluation is the right answer and a certification program would be money wasted. If you are heading toward a few thousand units over a few years, the arithmetic stops working and you want certification instead.

We are a test lab, not a certification body. We will tell you which side of that line you are on before you commit to anything, and if certification is the better route we will tell you that too.

Our special inspections are carried out by inspectors approved to the SPE-1000 Model Code, working under an accredited inspection body program.

• On-site field evaluation: We come to your plant, the installation site, or your customer’s facility.
• Inspection at our Aurora lab: Ship the equipment to us instead. For smaller units this is usually the cheaper of the two options.
• Multi-unit inspections: Several units of the same model assessed in a single visit.
• Deficiency correction and re-inspection: First-pass failures are common on equipment built to another market’s practice. You get the deficiencies in writing, and we return to verify the corrections.
• EMC and electrical safety alongside: Most equipment that needs a field evaluation also needs EMC and electrical safety testing. Both are run in-house, on one project, by one team.