I just finished refitting my home with LED bulbs. I replaced all 30 pot lights with LED GU10 bulbs from . they arent as bright as the halogens I had but at 3 watts they are very good at energy consumption and theiir output is still decent.. rated equivalence is 25 watt halogens. The only thing is they are pricey.. although we received a discount because we purchased a large quantity. We are also considering using their strip lighting to do the under-cabinets in our kitchen..

Are these LED bulbs CSA approved?

can LED type GU10 based bulbs be dimmed?

jbadwal....where did you buy your gu10s from? i have 5 50w gu10s in my kitchen on tracks that id love to replace with leds. if i have all my lights on (they are actually on two tracks) i'm consuming 250watts! yikes! and the kitchen lights are on regularly...

anyway, i am looking for safety (csa approved would be nice) and cost. and buying from somebody in canada would make it better too.

dude

ps. i am guessing they are not, but did we figure out if they are dimmable yet?

I am pretty sure they are dimmable as LEDs will, generally, light at different intensities depending on voltage, but that is hardly a definitive answer.

(csa approved would be nice)

If they are not CSA approved, they cannot be sold in Canada. If there is a fire and the bulbs are not CSA approved, your insurance company may not cover you.

Your choice!!!

(csa approved would be nice)

If they are not CSA approved, they cannot be sold in Canada. If there is a fire and the bulbs are not CSA approved, your insurance company may not cover you.

Your choice!!!
That is interesting on the CSA approval front. I am off to Taiwan in a couple of weeks and had planned on picking up a bucket load of LED's. I had not considered the CSA side of things.

Out of interest, do you know what the outline procedure is for approval ?

(csa approved would be nice)

If they are not CSA approved, they cannot be sold in Canada. If there is a fire and the bulbs are not CSA approved, your insurance company may not cover you.

Your choice!!!
Actually, I don't think this is quite true. It might be UL certified.

CSA is required for Canada, UL for the US. UL certification is accepted in Canada for products imported from the US. You can also get special approval from the provincial electrical inspection authority. However, this is usually used for commercial/industrial electrical devices, not household consumer products.

Not to hijack this thread but at Home Depot, I'd say more than half their lighting products are UL approved and not CSA. There are lots of replacement bulbs out there that have fallen through the cracks somehow.

UL is not acceptable in Canada, however ULC is. If you need something certified that is not approved by either CSA or ULC then like I_Want_My_HDTV says you can pay the Provincial Safety Authority a fee and they will put a provincial sticker on the unit.

Great Forum.

I'm new to your forum, but not new to LED's, CSA, UL etc. Everything mentioned is correct except one little note; ULc is Canadian certified. It's that little "c" which ususally appears after the UL (I've also seen it before the UL). Be careful with some UL (only) products. I've seen poor grounding techniques.

The CSA approval is quite a process. I've been through it a few times.

Regarding Lighting; Many light bulbs are not CSA or UL approved. Check you your local Canadian Tire light bulb products. All fixtures are approved.

All power supplies are CSA, or ULc listed. Our web site only shows 1/100th of our products, but we do have GU10, MR16, E27 (common bulb), pot lights, etc.

A big hit (mentioned above) is LED strips. Primarily used in kitchens. They're very bright and come in various lengths and colour ratings.

UL is not acceptable in Canada, however ULC is.

Correct. The ULc label means that the product was tested by UL (Underwriter Labortories) to Canadian Standards. Although many of the standards today are the same, CSA standards can vary on different products than UL. All products must bear either the CSA or ULc label to be legally sold in Canada OR bear a special approval label by CSA. The special inspection and label usually costs about $1,000 to obtain.

There's lots more than just ULc and CSA...there's also METc, ETLc, etc etc etc. I believe there are 8 certified labs in total.

Including TUV?


Wow...this thread has gone from asking where to get a certain bulb to certification...only on DHC! :)

To be correct, the lower-case "c" is only used when the letter appears before UL. That is, cUL. cUL is a mark that is permitted where standards have been harmonized and are accepted equally on both sides of the border. This applies to many electrical products.

There are some standards which are not harmonized, and you will see the old "ULC" designation for these. A good example is alarm receiving equipment found in central stations, as well as fire alarm control panels. The American standard is not accepted in these categories.

Here's a list of certification markings

http://www.esasafe.com/images/marks-1.jpg

I was talking to an electrician friend and he commented that although the LED lights might not be CSA certified:

They generate next to no heat ( no fire hazard)
Use little electricity
Like CFL's (generally) if they fail, they simply shut off.

He had no reservation about using them in his house.

John

It's an insurance issue. If there were an electrical fire in your house, they can invalidate your home insurance entirely simply because you had non-approved electrical devices plugged in, regardless of wether that was deemed the cause. (or at least that's the story I've been told before)

That story is correct. There is an element of scam in it, because the insurance companies and the certifying bodies grease each other's palms. The "U" in ULC or UL stands for "underwriters", i.e. the insurance companies.