| Before using any equipment in USA that is not UL approvled, I suggest that
| you contact your insurance co and ensure that they will cover non UL
| approved product.
Do you know of a source for UL listed Schuko outlets?
Why on earth would you need that? Nobody uses that plug in the US,
where UL is an issue. UL is NOT an issue in other countries. Sheesh,
talk about a red herring!
UL and any other NRTL listing is all about meeting codes AND insurance
requirements. Most users don't know it, but if a fire is caused in a
structure, and at the end of the investigation it is determined that
the fire was caused by a piece of electrical equipment that could have
had an NRTL label on it but didn't, the insurance adjuster will NOT
pay out on the fire!
Does UL test every single product going out the door? Of course not,
that is rediculous. But they do require that every single product
going ut the door is built to the same standards as the one listed. So
if a mfgr cheats and applies a label to a product that does not meet
that standard, they run the risk of having theor UL labeling
capability suspended. that happened to Federal Pacific with their
circuit breakers years ago, and that essentially put them out of
business in the US. I can also say for a fact that UL testing is VERY
stringent, and very thorough. In any agency anywhere in the world
there are always slackers, and I suppose they existwithin UL too, but
I have NEVER come across one yet.
CE on the other hand is some EU slight-of-hand if you ask me. Only
manufacturers in member countries can apply CE listings without third
party testing, and the US is not a member country. So we manufacturers
here in the US must spend extra to have 3rd party CE certification,
something that our EU competitors do not have to do. My opinion is
that this is payback for the years that we required them to get UL
when they were arguing that TUV and VDE etc. were just as good.
Revenge is sweet.
As to shoddy designs, chances are about 99.999999% that lamp was a
fake from China. UL is fighting that battle all the time. When they
find one, they go after them, but China is not really very
cooperative. Wal-Mart is famous for importing crap from China using
exclusivity contracts to get the cheapest crap they can, and UL is now
going after them if it comes in with phony labels. That has proved
more successful because Wal-Mart has more to lose in this country.
UL is not "going by the wayside" in any way shape or form. On the
other hand, UL is no longer exclusive in the ability to provide
acceptance testing as an NRTL, so now that they havecompetitors you
see more devices that have other labels, such as CSA, ETL, ENTELA, TUV
etc.