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Quality Standards

VeraSol maintains and utilizes a set of standards to evaluate the quality and durability of off-grid solar products.

Why Quality Standards?

Quality standards define a baseline level of quality to protect and better serve consumers, buyers, and sellers. Stakeholders such as national governments, procurement programs, and others recognize standards to keep sub-standard products out of the market and ensure that the products they support are high-quality. VeraSol evaluates a product’s conformity to the quality standards and maintains a public database of certified products.

Ready to Certify Your Product?

Initiating the certification process is easy. Simply fill out a short form and a member of our team will be in contact with you soon.

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What Do the Quality Standards Contain?

The quality standards address four core aspects of product quality: truth in advertising, safety, durability, and consumer protection.

Truth in Advertising

Product packaging should include sufficient and accurate information on performance. Truth-in-advertising gives buyers the tools they need to accurately compare and choose products that best fit their needs.

Safety

Products need to meet minimum safety requirements to protect consumers against dangerous failures. Safety requirements include items such as circuit and overload protection.

Durability

Consumers need to know that the products they purchase will last. Durability covers aspects such as workmanship quality, water and physical ingress protection, and lumen maintenance.

Consumer Protection

End-users need to know how to use products and be protected in the event of product failure. Consumer protection requires products to contain a detailed user manual and adequate warranty coverage.

Quality Standards for Solar Energy Kits

VeraSol uses the quality standards for pico-solar products and solar home system kits up to 350 Watts contained in IEC TS 62257-9-8, the only internationally recognized standards for these products.

These standards are an updated version of the Lighting Global Quality Standards for pico-solar products and solar home system kits, developed by the World Bank Group and used widely around the world. Together with the corresponding test methods (IEC TS 62257-9-5), the IEC standards form the foundation for quality in the off-grid solar sector.

Resources

VeraSol provides a number of resources that help users understand the quality standards contained in IEC TS 62257-9-8, and to outline how the standards have changed over time.  Read more.

IEC TS 62257-9-8

IEC TS 62257-9-8

IEC quality standards for standalone solar energy kits up to 350 Watts.

Quality Standards for Solar Appliances

VeraSol has developed and is piloting a set of quality standards for off-grid appropriate TVs and fans. We aim to develop quality standards for other solar appliances in the near future. These standards and test methods are intended to provide buyers with a framework to easily identify quality appliances that are sold independently from solar home system kits. Please contact us if you’d like to provide input on the standards or to learn more.

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