IEC 62368-1 - Safety for Audio/Video and IT Equipment
Audio/video, information and communication technology equipment - Part 1: Safety requirements
Energy-source classes at a glance
Key facts
- Full title
- Audio/video, information and communication technology equipment - Part 1: Safety requirements
- Published by
- IEC (TC 108)
- Current edition
- 4th edition, IEC 62368-1:2023, is now the governing edition; the 3rd edition (IEC 62368-1:2018 / EN IEC 62368-1:2020) is the legacy/transition edition
- Replaces
- IEC 60950-1 (IT) and IEC 60065 (AV), withdrawn 20 December 2020
- Approach
- Hazard-Based Safety Engineering (HBSE)
- Applies to
- AV, IT and communication technology equipment rated up to 600 V
- Transition
- 4th edition adopted regionally through 2025-2027; in North America via UL/CSA 62368-1 (2025), CSA enforcement 30 April 2026
What changed: from prescriptive rules to hazard-based safety
The two standards it replaced told designers what to build - specific isolation voltages, defined SELV limits, fixed constructions. IEC 62368-1 instead asks designers to identify each energy source in the product, classify how much harm it could transfer to a person or start a fire, and then apply safeguards matched to that class. This is hazard-based safety engineering, and it is meant to keep up with new constructions that the old prescriptive standards never anticipated.
Because the model is built around energy rather than product type, the same standard now covers a smart TV, a server, a VoIP phone and a phone charger - equipment that used to split between IEC 60950-1 and IEC 60065.
Energy-source classes
Electrical energy is sorted into three classes by the voltage and current a person could be exposed to. The class sets how much protection is required: ES1 needs none, ES2 needs a basic safeguard, ES3 needs a reinforced (or double) safeguard. The standard applies the same 1/2/3 logic to other hazards - PS1-PS3 for power sources that can start a fire, TS1-TS3 for surfaces that can burn, MS1-MS3 for mechanical energy.
Note that SELV, the safe-to-touch class from IEC 60950-1, is no longer defined; ES1 is treated as its equivalent because both are intended to be safe for an ordinary person to touch.
How it connects to insulation distances
Once a barrier is identified as basic or reinforced between two energy classes, the required creepage and clearance still come from the insulation-coordination tables - IEC 62368-1 carries its own Table 10 (clearance) and Table 17 (creepage), which build on IEC 60664-1. The creepage and clearance calculator on this site implements the general-purpose IEC 60664-1 route that those product tables derive from.
Electrical energy-source classes (below 1 kHz)
| Class | Voltage limit | Safeguard required | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| ES1 | ≤ 30 V rms / 42.4 V pk / 60 V dc | None - safe to touch | USB bus, low-voltage logic |
| ES2 | ≤ 50 V rms / 70.7 V pk / 120 V dc | Basic safeguard | 48 V PoE, some DC rails |
| ES3 | Above ES2 limits | Reinforced / double safeguard | Mains primary, 100 W USB-C PD |
Tools that use this standard
Related standards
| Standard | Relationship | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| IEC 60950-1 and IEC 60065 | Supersedes | The legacy IT-equipment and AV-equipment safety standards it merged and replaced; both withdrawn on 20 December 2020. |
| UL/CSA 62368-1 | Adopted in North America as | The binational US/Canada version, technically aligned with national differences. |
| IEC 62368-3 | Complemented by | Covers power and data delivered over the communication cabling, such as power over Ethernet. |
| IEC 60664-1 | Relies on | Creepage and clearance inside the equipment are dimensioned with the 60664-1 insulation-coordination method. |
Source: IEC webstore. An overview for design reference - verify against the current edition before relying on it for compliance.