Dear John I understand the following statements to be true. Please make corrections / comments where necessary.
1) EN 61000-3-2 only applies to equipment consuming up to 16A/phase, and there are no mandatory harmonic limits in the EU (yet) for higher-powered equipment, other than what the power supplier might impose. So EN 61000-3-2 is optional for equipment consuming >16A/phase. 2) EN 61000-3-2 currently has a let-out for "professional equipment" that consumes more than 1kW, so its application is optional for that category of equipment too. This could exclude many of the larger products sold solely for commercial and/or industrial use from EN 61000-3-2. (Maybe the combined air-conditioner / personal computer may not be such a bad idea if it gets consumption up above 1kW!). 3) The 'public low voltage supply' is a 4156/230V supply with more than one consumer connected. Large plants or office building often take their power at MV (11kV or more) and transform their own LV supply with their own distribution transformer - creating a 'private' low voltage supply dedicated for their own use. EN 61000-3-2 is optional for any equipment sold solely for use on such dedicated low voltage supplies. Privately-generated LV supplies ditto. 4) My copy of EN 61000-3-2 has a paragraph at the end of its Scope section that says: "Special equipment, which is not widely used and is designed in such a way that it is unable to comply with the requirements (limits), may be subject to installation restrictions. The supply authorities shall be notified as authorization may be required before connection." So custom-made or low-volume manufactured equipment (even if under 16A/phase) does not have to comply with EN 61000-3-2, as long as their users check with their power suppliers that they are OK to be connected. Maybe they could agree to deal with any harmonic issues at site-level, by installing an active harmonic cancellation unit. I realise that none of the above give much comfort to manufacturers of domestic or consumer products, but maybe a computer manufacturer could offer a version without PFC only for use in installations that have a dedicated LV supply. Regards, Keith Armstrong In a message dated 23/01/02 22:26:38 GMT Standard Time, [email protected] writes: > Subj:Re: EN 61000-3-3 compliant heater controller > Date:23/01/02 22:26:38 GMT Standard Time > From: [email protected] (John Woodgate) > Sender: [email protected] > Reply-to: <A HREF="mailto:[email protected]";>[email protected]</A> > (John Woodgate) > To: [email protected] > > I read in !emc-pstc that [email protected] wrote (in <16b.79458de.298 > [email protected]>) about 'EN 61000-3-3 compliant heater controller', on > Wed, 23 Jan 2002: > > They seem to me to be an excellent idea, and can help avoid the need > for > > improving a legacy mains distribution or buying EN 61000-3-2 compliant > > equipment. > > NO! Because the EMCD operates exclusively at product level, the use of > external mitigation does not permit conformity. The present > IEC/EN61000-3-2 requires products to conform in a stand-alone > configuration, with no external aids. This is one of the major points of > contention at present in the discussions leading to the Second Edition > of IEC/EN61000-3-2. > -- > Regards, John Woodgate, OOO - Own Opinions Only. > http://www.jmwa.demon.co.uk > After swimming across the Hellespont, I felt like a Hero. > PLEASE do NOT copy news posts to me by E-MAIL! >
