TÜV Rheinland recently became the 10th test lab worldwide to achieve KNX accreditation for performing KNX conformity tests. Only test reports emanating from such KNX accredited test labs are accepted as the basis for issuing the KNX conformity certificate. Such a certificate in turn is needed to brand a product with the KNX Trademark.
Already since its very foundation, KNX Association and its members have put great effort in the clear specification of the KNX system for home and building control, not only as regards the protocol but also as regards the useful data transported by this protocol.
This was done as KNX saw it as a prerequisite for its success that the system is not only open, but interoperability between products of different manufacturers and different applications is achieved.
Also since its foundation the KNX Association has put great emphasis on ensuring neutrality: it was therefore considered necessary that conformance of products is confirmed in the framework of a certification process, whereby conformity of products to the KNX standard is checked by third party test labs, not by the Association itself.
For this, KNX set up a procedure to check the ability of interested labs to perform such KNX conformity tests, both from an organizational point of view as well as from a technical competence point of view.
If a candidate KNX test lab is therefore not yet nationally accredited against ISO 17025, the test lab organization will be audited by KNX according to this standard. If it is, then the KNX assessment team will concentrate on checking the KNX competence of the test lab engineers.
In the last three years and following market demand, KNX has seen an exponential growth of the number of test labs applying for KNX accreditation. Not only did the first test lab outside Europe (ITEI Beijing) join the ranks of the KNX accredited test labs, also the number of test labs requesting accreditation for KNX lower layer testing increased.
Recently, TÜV Rheinland became the 10th KNX accredited test lab, this for conducting KNX interworking and functionality testing.
The complete list of KNX accredited test labs can be viewed on:
