Dahua UL listing

[woolooloo]

As background, we have a clinic under construction and I have planned to deploy 16 Dahua IP cams wth 2 Dahua 4216-8P NVRs. I just received one NVR today to start getting familiar with it.

We recently started hearing from others who have opened clinics that their certificates of occupancy were delayed because they had equipment that was not UL listed, so we've started checking everything that we plan to deploy.

We haven't had an issue until today when I checked the Dahua NVR and I do not see a UL mark. They do have an FCC and CE mark on it, but I believe that it needs to be from a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL), and these marks are not a substitute. Dang.

Does anyone have experience with this, have you setup Dahua NVRs prior to commercial certificate of occupancy inspections and how did the inspection go? Does anyone know if this is somehow registered by a NRTL and I'm just not seeing it? Are there alternative brands like Hikvision that do have appropriate NRTL marks?

 

[networkcameracritic]

The cameras themselves do not need to be UL listed as they are low voltage. Typically it's the power brick that needs to be UL listed as that's the high voltage component. If it's not UL listed, then maybe get an alternative power supply. Most common PoE switches are UL listed, so if you can't get the NVR component and power supply UL listed, you can go with a PC and put NVR software on it, starting from free for Smart PSS from Dahua or pay software like Milestone XProtect.

 

[woolooloo]

The cameras themselves do not need to be UL listed as they are low voltage. Typically it's the power brick that needs to be UL listed as that's the high voltage component. If it's not UL listed, then maybe get an alternative power supply. Most common PoE switches are UL listed, so if you can't get the NVR component and power supply UL listed, you can go with a PC and put NVR software on it, starting from free for Smart PSS from Dahua or pay software like Milestone XProtect.

That is actually a good idea, I can wait to deploy the NVRs and just use the cams with a PC for now. I have a PoE switch for our phone system that will have extra ports on it that I can plug the cams into. Thanks! I really didn't want to have to start from scratch in identifying different hardware.

 

[tokyojoe]

If you are using Cisco switches and they are older, meaning 3550's they only support Pre-standard cisco POE, and your cameras will not work with those switches. if they are switches which support 803.1af you will be OK

 

[woolooloo]

The electrical inspector today told our GC that he would be looking for UL stickers on the security cameras as well. I've seen at least one other reference to this on another forum and from what I can tell, it is the luck of the draw on both the inspector and the vicinity and I just happen to be in a vicinity with ridiculous rules and an inspector that takes himself too seriously (I mean really, you require a UL listing on a low voltage security camera?).

So our options seem to be to find another brand of camera with UL or resubmit plans without security cameras and then install them after we get our certificate of occupancy. I guess there are some UL listed cameras, such as Panasonic and Mobotix, but we can't afford any of them. So we're going to have to wait until after the CO. So congratulations, <insert name of our county here>, you've forced us bypass the inspection process, I'm sure that really improves the safety of everyone.

Beyond the cameras, we also have other items, like an employee vending machine, on our plans that we decided we could not afford to buy now. But apparently, since it is on our plans, we either have to have it so they can look for a UL sticker, or we have to remove it from the plans and pay to resubmit them and go back through the 3+ week approval process if we want to get a certificate of occupancy. About the only thing these ridiculous rules do is put more money into the pockets of Underwriters Laboratory, a for-profit corporation. Sorry, end rant.