NEMA Rating vs. IP Rating NEMA is an American standard and IP is a European standard. IP stands for International Protection but is almost always interpreted as Ingress Protection because it is the rating system that denotes the level of protection from ingress of dust and water. NEMA ratings and IP ratings use different test methods and parameters to define their enclosure types, with NEMA using NEMA 250 and IP using IEC standard 60529. NEMA ratings are used exclusively for enclosures, but IP r