Electrical Certification in Quebec
ELECTRICAL CERTIFICATION IN QUEBEC
In Quebec, it is illegal to sell, rent or install electrical equipment that is not approved. The rule comes from the Régie du bâtiment du Québec and covers anything fed by an electrical installation — LED lighting included.
The 12 V and 24 V trap
Many people assume low-voltage products are exempt. That mistake gets expensive at inspection time.
There is an exemption for equipment rated at most 100 VA and at most 30 V. But it does not apply to signs, lighting equipment or luminaires. In other words: a 12 V or 24 V LED strip must be approved, even if it draws less than 100 VA. Same goes for its power supply.
The two routes to approval
1. Certification. The usual route. A body accredited by the Standards Council of Canada verifies the product against Canadian standards, then applies its mark. That is what the products we sell carry.
2. Special inspection. For specialized equipment or short production runs, an accredited inspection body evaluates the equipment on site against SPE-1000 or SPE-3000 (CSA Group), then applies a special inspection label.
The detail that matters: the small "c"
A certification mark on its own is not enough. What you look for is the "c" indicator at the 8 o'clock position of the mark — bottom left. That is what says the product meets Canadian standards.
Without it, the product may be certified for another market only, and you need to check with the certification body. Some marks are used in Canada exclusively and need no extra indicator — but when in doubt, verify.
What LEDCO products carry
Our products are certified cULus and cETLus:
- cULus — certified by UL LLC, for Canada (the "c") and the United States (the "us").
- cETLus — the ETL mark, issued by Intertek Testing Services NA Ltd., for Canada and the United States.
Both bodies appear on the RBQ's list of accredited certification organizations. In practice: the equipment you buy from us can be installed in Quebec without a surprise at inspection.
What about DLC?
One clarification that prevents a common misunderstanding. Some of our products are also DLC listed (DesignLights Consortium). That is not a safety certification and it does not replace the approval required in Quebec.
DLC is an energy performance program: it confirms a luminaire meets an efficiency threshold, and it mainly makes a project eligible for rebate programs. A product can be DLC listed without being approved, and approved without being DLC listed. For compliance, the cULus and cETLus marks are what count.
Check for yourself
The list of accredited bodies and valid marks changes over time. For current information, always go to the source:
We also keep a copy of the document as it stood in October 2023 — handy for the mark images, but always check the online version above, which is the one that governs: PDF copy (October 2023, 7 pages).
Question about whether a product is compliant for your job site? Write to us or call 450 444-4007 — we will pull the product's sheet for you.
