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Clearances and Creepage Distances in LV

Electrical Switchboards
3 min read
Pascal Lepretre (https://blog.se.com/author/pascal-lepretre/) | June 6, 2018 | 35,353 views

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(https://blog.se.com/wp-
admin/admin-
Theajax.php?
first (https://blog.se.com/power-management-metering-monitoring-power-
action=bones_email_post_ajax&pid=48380&_ajax_nonce=0c174c1855)
quality/2018/05/10/avoid-the-wrong-type-of-electrical-fireworks-with-iec-61439/) post
in this series (https://blog.se.com/tag/iec-61439-blog-series/) detailed the reasons
behind the introduction of IEC 61439 (https://webstore.iec.ch/publication/5457) while
my second (https://blog.se.com/power-management-metering-monitoring-power-
quality/2018/05/23/iec-61439-rated-current-of-electrical-panel-and-switchboard-
protection-devices/) post covered rating current of protection devices. Complying to
the standard and implementing its guidelines help ensure that LV electrical switch-
boards (https://www.se.com/ww/en/product-category/4000-switchboards-and-
enclosures/) and panels work like they should. That improves electrical safety and
lessens the chance for a lack of service continuity, thereby reducing downtime and
associated costs (https://static.schneider-
electric.us/docs/Electrical%20Distribution/Services/1910EP1604.pdf). For designers,
this is a way to build business – by specifying a more reliable equipment, system or
assembly.

In this post, I’m going to outline reasons why and how you should satisfy clearances
and creepage distances. This is important for power availability, a vital issue im-
pacted by local conditions around the world. India, for instance, has, unfortunately,
experienced blackouts covering 670 million people
(https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/01/world/asia/power-outages-hit-600-million-in-
india.html).

Interruptions to the electrical grid can be caused by accidents, lightning or other

factors. Ensuring clearances and creepage distances meet the minimum requested
by the standard avoids problems for nominal voltage and overvoltage such as:

Electrical arc ignition – prevention is critical for arc flash

(https://www.se.com/ww/en/work/services/field-services/electrical-
distribution/optimise/arc-flash-solutions/) mitigation

Decreasing insulation performance

Connection damage

Before we get into how you can meet these requirements, let’s define terms:

Clearances – the shortest distance between two conductive parts,

specified for nominal voltage and overvoltage

Creepage distances – the shortest distance along of the surface of an

insulating material between two conductive parts, specified for normal
usage and modified by environmental conditions – such as the degree of
environment pollution

Section 10.4 of IEC 61439 provides the list referred to in IEC 60664-1, the basic
safety publication “Insulation coordination for equipment within low-voltage
systems”. This shows the minimum clearances and creepage distances by nominal,
or rated, voltage and overvoltage, or rated impulse withstand voltage, under differ-
ent pollution levels. The pollution degree is from 1 to 4 in the standard, and for a
panel or switchboard installed in an industrial area the pollution degree is defined
as 3.
/
For example, suppose the nominal voltage (Ui) is 1000 V and the overvoltage cate-
gory is III. Then the rated impulse voltage (Uimp) is 8000 V, as per table F.1 in IEC
60664-1.

With this impulse voltage (8,000 V), and a pollution degree 3 (an industry
environment), the minimum clearance should be 8 mm as shown in Table 1.

IEC 61439 suggests that the panel builders perform the routine verification for clear-
ances and creepage distances. If the design distances are respected, the panel
builder gets the guaranty of the performances to almost all types of over voltages
and installation environmental constraints. In addition, according to the IEC 61439-1
section 10.11, the original manufacturer shall make sure the clearances or creepage
distances are compliant to the standard even after a short circuit test.

Using the methods of standard to design and test a switchboard avoids such prob-
lems as dielectric failure, reduced creepage or clearance, and other electrical safety
risks. On the rare occasions that lightning strikes nearby, this can significantly in-
crease the risk of grid overvoltage. However, it is also important to be aware that the
simple action of switching equipment on and off – which is a regular occurrence in
most buildings – can similarly cause overvoltage. Therefore, it is essential to choose
the correct design, to ensure electrical safety. That will be the case if your panel
meets the standard.

However, as can be seen by the example above where the minimum clearance was
calculated to be 8 mm, verifying compliance to the standard is not always an easy or
a simple process. Multiple steps are required, along with looking up values in vari-
ous tables.

Third party certification, an advantage in IEC 61439 compared to earlier standards,

can help with this. Thanks to such a certification, specifiers can be sure that what
comes from switchboard component suppliers and original manufacturers imple-

/
ments the recommendations of the standard. As a result, designers can concentrate
on other parts of a project, while still being sure that the resulting system will work
as it should now and will continue to do so for the rest of its operating life.

Schneider Electric (https://www.se.com/ww/en/) has a complete range of main and

distribution busbars (https://www.se.com/ww/en/product-subcategory/6310-busbars-
and-wiring-systems/?filter=business-1-industrial-automation-and-control&parent-
category-id=5800), prefabricated connections and distribution blocks and design
rules in its catalog. The next post in this series (https://blog.se.com/tag/iec-61439-
blog-series/) will look at insulating material (https://onedrive.live.com/?
id=63e97036247c814f!0%3aL0xpdmVGb2xkZXJzL015IERvY3VtZW50cy9BcnRpY2xlcy9kdW1teSBsaW5r)
and how to confirm its quality

Tags: creepage (https://blog.se.com/tag/creepage/), Electrical Fire Prevention (https://blog.se.com/tag/electrical-

fire-prevention/), IEC 61439 Blog Series (https://blog.se.com/tag/iec-61439-blog-series/), low voltage panel
builder (https://blog.se.com/tag/low-voltage-panel-builder/), Low Voltage Switchboard
(https://blog.se.com/tag/low-voltage-switchboard/), overvoltage protection (https://blog.se.com/tag/overvoltage-
protection/)

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