Importance of Area of Installation!!

Creating Awareness is the Key & Creating it Rightly is the need!!

In continuation to my earlier efforts on highlighting the importance of standards, this article is intended to cover the most easier yet critical topic on the wrong interpretation of Degrees of Ingress Protection.

There is an increasing confusion over IP65, IP66 and IP67 requirements in many industries and solar industry in India or some other countries is not an exception. As the tag line, "Creating the awareness rightly" goes, due to the sudden expansion and number of solar projects, wrong information also gets increased in the same pace and awareness is spread in the wrong way. There is a wrong interpretation especially on the higher degrees of protection and some of the installers and designers are informed that IP68 is better than IP67, IP 67 better than IP66 and IP66 is better than IP65. In short higher the second digit, better is the protection is what is interpreted so far.

Before we take the subject, let us first get to the basics, on some of these popular codes from IEC that are in regular use by our installers.

The Degrees of protection IP 'XX" is derived from the IEC 60529 standard and has been a very common one for the industry. The first digit in "XX" is for protection against solid foriegn bodies ( Dust Particles) and 6 is the maximum protection as per the standard as it offer a dust proof solution. So there is already the highest safety level adapted as all the IPs that we are discussing in this article has the prefix digit 6 in it.

The second digit in "XX" is for protection from ingress of water. And this is the area where vendors / suppliers try to pitch in with wrong information as the higher IP is promoted as better option . IP 65 has been the most popular in these codes as for any outdoor installation which needs a weatherproof solution, products / equipments with this code are chosen.

For an installer, the selection of these codes should be based on his area of installation and not as per the increasing code numbers. It is just like selecting a trouser based on ones waist size and not selecting a trouser with the highest available waist size ;) What an installer needs to identify is where are the product being installed and what would be the environment and application. Without these prime factors of selection, it will be a blind selection as you might spend unnecesarily or will spend on a product that is not meant for your actual area of installation.

Please note basic differences between these higher degrees as under;

IP 65 : Dust water Proof & Jet Water Proof ( These products can take upto 65 Bar pressure of water based ondifferent manufacturers data) This speed of water is more than sufficient for outdoor installation which are influenced with heavy rainfalls or are subjected with jet water cleaning thats more than the speed used in Car cleaning systems. All the outdoor installations can be satisfied with this degree of protection and they are suitable for any kind of difficult environments.

IP 66 : Dust Water Proof & Ultra high Jet Water Proof ( These products can take upto 105 Bar pressure of Jet water). Ideally these are most common to Marine & Ship Building Industries as they are subjected to frequent high pressure cleaning and infuenced by Salt / Sea water. Typical Industries other than Marine or Construction do not require them as IP65 Suffices the protection requirements.

IP 67 : Dust Water Proof & Temporary Submersion ( These products can be immersed upto 30 minutes under water). These types are generally utilised in areas that can get flooded quickly and also get cleared quickly. An easy example would be close to swimming pool or some installation as illustrated in the below picture. These types are also very common to the Marine Industry or for landscaping where there are chances of temporary flooding.

IP 68 : Dust Proof and Water Proof : Products that are IP68 can generally be installed under water or areas that get flooded with water for longer periods of time. However, the temperature allowed is 50deg C and these products cannot be used for cleaning with hot water that more than the permissible limit ( generally a requirement for construction equipments). Most commonly for landscaping, swimming pool applications for lighting and control these products/ equipments are used.

IP 69K : Dust Proof & Water Proof : The former DIN standard which will soon be adapted to IEC 60529 is a brand new standard specially introduced for Construction equipments requirements. The heavy machineries and euqipments like the concrete mixers need high pressure and high temperature cleaning and IP 68 cannot satisfy these requirements. Products certified as IP69K can withstand steam water and high temepratures of 80 degC and can also be completely immersed in water.

It should also be noted that all the hermetically sealed or IP rated products can fuflil protection from water and dust ingress influenced by external conditions and they are not capable of protecting internal conditions such as condensation or water droplets produced inside due to heating of internal components. Sometimes installers expect IP rated products to protect from internal condensation and this cannot be fulfilled. These are different requirements and we can take this in a seperate article next time.

It should also be noted that each IP ratings have different set of requirements for fulfilment as per IEC60529 and it is purely based on the area of installation and influence.

Hence, the installers should not confuse with these ratings and should choose the right IP as per their areas of installation. Most of the reputed manufacturers of IP rated products have products of each of these ratings but those who dont have only focus for their available types and hence the confusion.