UL posts results of fact-finding investigation into effects of power over LAN cable

Underwriters Laboratories has made available for download the document it presented during a web seminar on September 15, 2015. The seminar, titled “UL, the NEC, and Power over LAN Cable,” included preliminary results from UL’s recent fact-finding investigation into the effects of sending high power levels over twisted-pair cabling.

In addition to providing those preliminary results, the seminar included information on UL’s history and the services it provides to industry, as well as timely information about the revision of the National Electrical Code that’s currently underway. Of particular note, code-making panels currently working on the 2017 NEC are have made preliminary decisions about the delivery of power over LAN cabling. As a practical matter, that means Power over Ethernet for millions of users and Power over HDBase-T for many as well. As next-generation PoE specifications take shape, close attention is being paid to the effects—particularly heat rise—in cables supporting power as high as 100 watts.

With that as a backdrop, UL was contracted by The Society of Plastics Industry (SPI) to conduct its fact-finding investigation. SPI permitted UL to share preliminary results, and the live seminar on September 15 was the first disclosure of the investigation’s results to anyone outside UL and SPI. UL’s global director Steven A. Galan and program/project manager Randy Ivans delivered the web seminar. Ivans delivered the detail on the recent fact-finding investigation.

You can download a PDF copy of the seminar’s material here.

You can view the seminar in its entirety—and download the PDF—here.