IEC GUIDE 110:2014

IEC GUIDE 110 ®
Edition 2.0 2014-04
GUIDE
Home control systems – Guidelines relating to safety

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IEC GUIDE 110 ®
Edition 2.0 2014-04
GUIDE
Home control systems – Guidelines relating to safety

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
PRICE CODE
M
ICS 13.120; 97.200 ISBN 978-2-8322-1517-3

– 2 – IEC GUIDE 110:2014 © IEC 2014
CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 3
1 Scope . 5
2 Normative references . 5
3 Terms and definitions. 5
4 Home control systems . 6
5 Safety aspects . 9
5.1 General considerations . 9
5.2 Functional safety aspects . 10
5.3 Equipment safety aspects . 11
5.3.1 General . 11
5.3.2 Startup after failure . 11
5.3.3 Lifetime safety . 11
5.3.4 Reasonably foreseeable misuse . 11
5.3.5 Summation of touch current . 11
5.3.6 Communication . 11
6 Conclusions and recommendations . 12
Bibliography . 13

Figure 1 – Examples of possible topologies . 8
Figure 2 – Example of different ways of powering equipment . 9

INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
HOME CONTROL SYSTEMS –
GUIDELINES RELATING TO SAFETY
FOREWORD
1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of IEC is to promote
international co-operation on all questions concerning standardization in the electrical and electronic fields. To
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2) The formal decisions or agreements of IEC on technical matters express, as nearly as possible, an international
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3) IEC Publications have the form of recommendations for international use and are accepted by IEC National
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8) Attention is drawn to the Normative references cited in this publication. Use of the referenced publications is
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9) Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this IEC Publication may be the subject of
patent rights. IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
This second edition of IEC Guide 110 has been prepared, in accordance with the ISO/IEC
Directives, Part 1, Annex A, by the IEC Advisory Committee on Safety (ACOS). This is a
non-mandatory guide in accordance with SMB Decision 136/8.
This second edition of IEC Guide 110 cancels and replaces the first edition published in 1996.
The main changes with respect to the previous edition are as follows (minor changes are not
listed):
– addition of several new electrical safety aspects;
– inclusion of cyber security;
– consistent use of the term “equipment” to replace terms such as “device”, “system”,
“product”, etc.;
– bringing the document structure in line with the latest ISO/IEC Directives;

– 4 – IEC GUIDE 110:2014 © IEC 2014
– updating the references to standards and IEC technical committees to reflect the current
situation.
The text of this Guide is based on the following documents:
Four months' vote Report on voting
C/1785A/DV C/1796/RV
Full information on the voting for the approval of this Guide can be found in the report on voting
indicated in the above table.
This publication has been drafted in accordance with the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.
A bilingual version of this publication may be issued at a later date.

HOME CONTROL SYSTEMS –
GUIDELINES RELATING TO SAFETY
1 Scope
This Guide provides background information to technical committees when dealing with safety
requirements for products intended to be integrated in a home control system. It includes
information on functional safety as well as conventional safety aspects relevant to home control
systems.
This Guide defines the safety-related characteristics of systems intended for signal
transmission through building wiring carrying low voltage or extra low-voltage, through fibre
optics, through air or by electromagnetic waves in household and similar premises (home
control systems).
This Guide deals with home control systems providing control communication for equipment
used within homes. This includes the control of equipment for cooling, heating, lighting,
audio/video, telecommunications, security, etc., in fact, any equipment controlled by the home
control system. It also includes residential gateways between the internal home control system
network and external wide-area networks such as the internet. The Guide also covers similar
building management functions in commercial buildings of similar complexity.
EMC aspects are not covered, since these are dealt with by IEC Guide 107.
2 Normative references
The following documents, in whole or in part, are normatively referenced in this document and
are indispensable for its application. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For
undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments)
applies.
IEC 60950-1:2005, Information technology equipment – Safety – Part 1: General requirements
ISO/IEC Guide 51, Safety aspects – Guidelines for their inclusion in standards
EN 50491-3, General requirements for home and building electronic systems (HBES) and
building automation and control systems (BACS) – Part 3: Electrical safety requirements
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in ISO/IEC Guide 51 as well
as the following apply.
3.1
home network
internal network for digital and analog information transport in a single family dwelling or
business premises of similar complexity, providing defined access points and using any
transmission medium in any topology

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3.2
home control system
home network together with all the equipment attached to it, including the rules for control,
communication and management among application processes
3.3
application protocol
standardized language, used by application processes to exchange information in a home
control system, transported without interpretation by the home network resources
3.4
functional safety
ability of a home control system to carry out the actions necessary to achieve and maintain an
appropriate level of safety both under normal conditions and in case of a fault that might result
in a hazard
4 Home control systems
A variety of electrically-controlled equipment may be used in homes and similar environments
for many different applications.
Examples of such applications are:
– lighting;
– heating;
– washing;
– entertainment (audio/video);
– energy management;
– water control;
– fire alarm;
– blinds control;
– garage door openers;
– different forms of security control (audio/video).
When several pieces of equipment are able to interwork via a home network, wired or wireless,
the resulting total system is referred to as a home control system.
A home network may be based on different transmission media (for example, power network,
twisted pair, infrared or radio, wireless) and may also be connected to outside networks (for
example, telephone networks, cable networks).
A home control system will typically first be assembled to cover certain basic applications, for
example control of lighting, heating and ventilation. It may include equipment from different
manufacturers. This equipment is, in many cases, the responsibility of different IEC product
committees.
Furthermore, it is likely that the system will be later
...