18 September 2026
The NIN (SN 411000) is the standard by which every electrical installation up to 1000 V in Switzerland is built and tested. It is not binding in its own right, but because Art. 3 NIV prescribes the recognised rules of good practice. What the NIN 2025 contains and what it does not, who publishes it, and how it differs from the NIV, the grid operators' technical rules and the ESTI directives.
The NIN is the Swiss low-voltage installation standard SN 411000 (Niederspannungs-Installationsnorm), published by Electrosuisse, and it governs how electrical installations up to 1000 V AC and 1500 V DC are planned, built and tested. It is binding because the NIV (Low-Voltage Installation Ordinance) requires in Art. 3 that installations be built, altered, maintained and inspected "in accordance with the recognised rules of good practice" — and that such rules are "in particular the standards of the IEC and CENELEC", of which the NIN is the Swiss implementation. The current edition is the NIN 2025, in force since 1 January 2025. Anyone who has to apply it buys it: the NIN is not a piece of legislation the federal government publishes free of charge, but a standard obtained from Electrosuisse or the Swiss Association for Standardization.
The low-voltage installation standard is the Swiss edition of CENELEC's European harmonisation documents of the HD 60364 series, which are in turn based on the IEC 60364 series of standards, supplemented by the particularities of Swiss practice. Its official designation is SN 411000; the older designation SEV 1000 can still be found in many documents. The publisher is Electrosuisse, and the standard is drafted and kept up to date by its Technical Committee for Electrical Installations.
The purpose is stated in the standard itself and on every page Electrosuisse publishes about it: protecting persons, livestock and property from the hazards arising from an electrical installation. Everything in the NIN — protective measures, cable sizing, selection of equipment, testing — serves this single aim. It is neither a design aid nor a textbook, even if, with its explanations on a blue background, it can in places be read as one.
The NIN is divided into eight chapters that follow the structure of HD 60364: scope, object and fundamental principles (1), definitions (2), general characteristics of the installation (3), protective measures (4), selection and erection of electrical equipment (5), testing (6), special installations and locations (7) and functional aspects (8). Chapter 8 is the newest: 8.1 deals with energy efficiency, and the 2025 edition added 8.2, combined generation and consumption installations.
A standard is a private rule. What makes it binding in Switzerland is the reference in an ordinance of the Federal Council. The NIV states in Art. 3 para. 1 that electrical installations must be built, altered, maintained and inspected in accordance with the recognised rules of good practice and must "endanger neither persons nor property nor animals". Para. 2 says which rules these are: "in particular the standards of the IEC and CENELEC. Where internationally harmonised standards are lacking, the Swiss standards apply." And para. 3 closes the last gap: where no specific standard exists, "standards applicable by analogy or any technical directives" are to be taken into account.
That is the entire legal construction. The NIV does not name the NIN — it names the IEC and CENELEC, and the NIN is their implementation for Switzerland. Build to the NIN and you build to the recognised rules of good practice; depart from it and, in a dispute, you must show that your solution is equally safe. In practice the NIN is therefore the yardstick against which an installation is measured: at the final inspection, at the acceptance inspection by the independent inspection body, at the ESTI's spot check and in court.
The footnote to Art. 3 NIV also says where to find the standards: the titles and texts "may be consulted free of charge and obtained for a fee" from the Swiss Association for Standardization (SNV). Consulting free of charge means: on site in Winterthur. A business that needs the NIN buys it — as a binder, as NIN Compact or as NIN Online with a search function and ongoing updates in German, French and Italian.
So far the NIN has appeared every five years: 2010, 2015, 2020, 2025. The NIN 2025 came into force on 1 January 2025. Electrosuisse lists as changes from the NIN 2020 updated normative references to the harmonisation documents SN HD 60364, revised graphics, structural adjustments and the new chapter 8.2 "Combined generation and consumption installations" — the prosumer installation, in which a building generates, stores and consumes electricity, with particular emphasis on the DC sides that photovoltaics, storage and charging infrastructure have brought into every new build.
Electrosuisse has since published a corrigendum and an amendment to the NIN 2025, both as free downloads. The corrigendum corrects errors that "escaped quality control before publication"; the amendment contains normative changes. Anyone working with the printed binder needs to know both — the online version incorporates them automatically.
On the transition period, Electrosuisse is keeping its counsel for the 2025 edition. For the NIN 2020, a transition period ran until 30 June 2020 for new installations and alterations to existing ones, and the ESTI extended that period at the time for a single chapter on construction-site installations. Anyone completing an installation to the NIN 2020 today that was planned and started before 2025 should clear this with the inspection body before the safety certificate is issued — not afterwards.
Four things are regularly looked for in the NIN and are found elsewhere:
And conversely: the content of the initial verification that Art. 24 NIV requires is not in the ordinance but — according to the ESTI in Directive 220 — "follows from chapter 6.1 NIN". The five inspections the safety certificate must evidence are named in the DETEC ordinance (V-UVEK NIV); how they are carried out is in the NIN. The two articles «Initial verification, final inspection, acceptance inspection» and «Measurement and test report» show how ordinance and standard mesh there.
Anyone carrying out electrical installations in Switzerland works with four sets of rules, which can be told apart by their designation:
| Set of rules | Issuer | What it governs |
|---|---|---|
| NIV (SR 734.27) | Federal Council | Who may install, which inspections and certificates are mandatory, how often |
| NIN (SN 411000) | Electrosuisse | How an installation is safely built and tested |
| Werkvorschriften WV CH | Grid operators (VSE) | Grid connection, metering, grid interference, notification forms |
| ESTI directives | Federal Inspectorate for Heavy Current Installations | Interpretation of the NIV in individual cases: reporting duties, power generation systems, permits |
The ordinance is free on fedlex.admin.ch, the ESTI directives on esti.admin.ch, the Werkvorschriften on werkvorschriften.ch. The NIN is the only one of the four that has to be bought — and the only one that says how a circuit is actually built.
Is the NIN legally binding? Not in its own right. What is binding is Art. 3 NIV, which prescribes the recognised rules of good practice and refers for this to the standards of the IEC and CENELEC. The NIN is their Swiss implementation, and anyone who complies with it satisfies Art. 3 NIV. Anyone who departs from it must demonstrate the equivalent safety of their solution themselves.
Since when has the NIN 2025 applied? Since 1 January 2025. Electrosuisse has published a corrigendum and an amendment to it as free downloads; the online version contains both.
Where can I read the NIN free of charge? It can be consulted at the Swiss Association for Standardization SNV in Winterthur; it is obtained for a fee from the SNV or Electrosuisse, in print or as NIN Online. Extracts on the internet are neither complete nor reliable.
Are the inspection intervals in the NIN? No. The inspection intervals are in the annex to the NIV. The NIN governs how testing is done, not at what intervals.
Sources: Low-Voltage Installation Ordinance (NIV, SR 734.27), Art. 3 with footnote 11, Art. 23 and 24 and the annex, as of 31 October 2025, fedlex.admin.ch. Electrosuisse, «NIN 2025», «Corrigendum NIN 2025» and product pages on the NIN, electrosuisse.ch, accessed 18 September 2026. EIT.swiss, «Normen» (standards), eit.swiss, accessed 18 September 2026. ESTI, Directive No. 220 «Anforderungen an Energieerzeugungsanlagen» (requirements for power generation systems), version 0621, section 6. This article does not reproduce the content of the standard; the authoritative text is that of SN 411000 in the edition in force at the time.
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