EN 55015: EMC Emissions for Lighting Equipment
EN 55015 is the European harmonised standard covering radio disturbance emitted by lighting equipment. It is the European edition of CISPR 15, and it is mandatory for CE marking a luminaire under the EMC Directive.
It is also, on its own, not enough. EN 55015 covers emissions only, and a compliant lighting product needs three further standards alongside it.
The short answer
EN 55015 measures what a light emits. For full EMC compliance a mains-powered luminaire also needs:
- EN 61547 for immunity
- EN 61000-3-2 for harmonic current
- EN 61000-3-3 for flicker and voltage fluctuation
What EN 55015 Actually Covers
The full title is worth reading, because it defines the scope precisely: limits and methods of measurement of radio disturbance characteristics of electrical lighting and similar equipment.
Radio disturbance. Not safety, not immunity, not power quality. The standard asks one question: how much electromagnetic noise does this product put into the world, and is it below the limit?
It measures that noise on two paths. Conducted disturbance travels back down the mains cable and is measured at the supply terminals from 9 kHz to 30 MHz, using a LISN to give a defined impedance. Radiated disturbance propagates through the air and is measured from 30 MHz to 300 MHz in a semi-anechoic chamber or on an open area test site.
Scope covers luminaires, lamps, LED modules, drivers, ballasts, dimmers and lighting control gear, for indoor and outdoor general illumination.
Why It Starts at 9 kHz
Most EMC emissions standards begin conducted measurement at 150 kHz. EN 55015 starts at 9 kHz, and the reason is specific to how modern lighting works.
An LED driver is a switching power supply. It chops the input at a switching frequency, and on many drivers that fundamental sits in the tens to hundreds of kilohertz. A standard beginning at 150 kHz would miss the fundamental entirely on a large proportion of products and only catch the harmonics further up.
Starting at 9 kHz captures the switching fundamental itself. This is also why the transition from incandescent and magnetic ballasts to LED made EMC compliance considerably harder. A filament lamp is a resistor and emits essentially nothing. An LED driver is a switching converter generating broadband noise across the entire measurement range. Our guide on LED drivers covers what the driver does and why its design determines so much about a fixture’s behaviour.
The Full EMC Package
This is where specifications most often go wrong, and where the cost of getting it wrong is a failed conformity assessment rather than a failed test.
| Standard | Covers | IEC / CISPR equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| EN 55015 | Radio disturbance emitted, conducted and radiated | CISPR 15 |
| EN 61547 | Immunity to external disturbance | IEC 61547 |
| EN 61000-3-2 | Harmonic current emissions, Class C for lighting | IEC 61000-3-2 |
| EN 61000-3-3 | Voltage fluctuation and flicker | IEC 61000-3-3 |
Harmonic limits under EN 61000-3-2 apply to lighting equipment above a defined power threshold, so very low power products may fall outside that particular requirement. Confirm the current threshold against the applicable edition rather than assuming.
Military and Dual-Use Products
EN 55015 and the military EMC standards are separate regimes, and passing one says nothing about the other.
MIL-STD-461 governs emissions and susceptibility for military equipment, with different limits, different test methods and a far wider set of individual tests. A product qualified to MIL-STD-461 has not thereby met EN 55015, and the reverse holds too.
For dual-use lighting sold into both civilian and defence markets, both regimes typically apply, tested separately. Vehicle lighting sold in Europe adds ECE Regulation 10 for automotive EMC on top. Our vehicle lighting and work light ranges are supplied with the documentation appropriate to the market and platform.
Beyond the Netherlands and the EU
Because EN 55015 derives from CISPR 15, its limits align closely with other national standards built on the same base. Canada’s ICES-005 is the clearest example, harmonised with CISPR 15 to the extent that a single test campaign can satisfy both European and Canadian emissions requirements.
For manufacturers selling across multiple markets this is worth planning around, since it can remove an entire round of testing.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. EN 55015 is an emissions standard only, covering the radio disturbance a product puts out. Immunity for lighting equipment is covered by EN 61547, a separate harmonised standard. Both are required under the EMC Directive, and a test report for EN 55015 alone does not demonstrate compliance.
CISPR 15 is the international standard published by CISPR, part of the IEC. EN 55015 is the European harmonised edition of the same document, adopted by CENELEC and listed under the EMC Directive. The technical content is aligned, but only the EN version carries presumption of conformity for CE marking. Editions can lag one another, so check which edition a test report cites.
Not automatically, and it should never be assumed. The two use different limits, different measurement methods and different test setups. A product qualified to MIL-STD-461 for defence procurement still requires separate EN 55015 testing to be CE marked for the European civilian market. Dual-use products are normally tested to both.