North American hazardous locations: the future

The approach to the classification of hazardous locations, and the design and installation of electrical equipment used in these locations, is quite different in North America to that of a number of other developed nations. For a variety of reasons, many equipment users in the United States and Canada desire to have the ability to choose between the existing Class, and Division rated equipment, and wiring methods and/or the international rated equipment and wiring methods, in their facilities. The addition of Article 505 to the 1996 National Electrical Code (NEC), and similar changes in process to the Canadian Electrical Code (CEC) to introduce the International Electrotechnical Commission's (IEC) system of area classification is the result of years of effort. Given the dissimilarity between Canada and the United States' electrical codes and standards writing processes, and the attitude of each group concerning the integration of the new system, there will be differences between the two countries for some period of time. The authors review the differences in the processes, provide a comparison of the systems and conclude with a look to the future after the full impact of the new system in each code is realized.