This part of IEC 61000 defines the immunity test methods and range of recommended basic test levels for electrical and electronic equipment with rated current up to 16 A per phase at disturbance frequencies up to and including 2 kHz (for 50 Hz mains) and 2,4 kHz (for 60 Hz mains) for harmonics and interharmonics on low voltage power networks.

It does not apply to electrical and electronic equipment connected to 16 2/3 Hz , or to 400 Hz a.c. networks. Tests for these networks will be covered by future standards.

The object of this standard is to establish a common reference for evaluating the functional immunity of electrical and electronic equipment when subjected to harmonics and inter-harmonics and mains signalling frequencies. The test method documented in this part of IEC 61000 describes a consistent method to assess the immunity of an equipment or system against a defined phenomenon. As described in IEC guide 107, this is a basic EMC publication for use by product committees of the IEC. As also stated in Guide 107, the IEC product committees are responsible for determining whether this immunity test standard should be applied or not, and if applied, they are responsible for determining the appropriate test levels and performance criteria. TC 77 and its sub-committees are prepared to co-operate with product committees in the evaluation of the value of particular immunity tests for their products.

The verification of the reliability of electrical components (for example capacitors, filters, etc.) is not in the scope of the present standard. Long term thermal effects (greater than 15 min) are not considered in this standard.

The levels proposed are more adapted for residential, commercial and light industry environments. For heavy industrial environments the product committees are responsible for the definition of a class X with the necessary levels. They have also the possibility of defining more complex waveforms for their own need. Nevertheless, the simple waveforms proposed have been mainly observed on several networks (flat curve more often for single phase system) and also on industrial networks (overswing curve more for three phase systems).