What is a tracked changes standard?
A tracked changes version of a Standard indicates the changes made, during the standards revision process, between the active standard and its previous version. Additions, deletions, and other formatting and/or content revisions are clearly displayed as underlined and strikethrough texts, ensuring all changes made between the two documents are quickly and easily identified.
What is this standard about?
It deals with limiting the harmonic currents injected into the public low-voltage mains electricity supply system by electrical and electronic equipment.
Who is this standard for?
- EMC test laboratories
- Electrical testing laboratories
- Manufacturers of electrical and electronic equipment which can be operated from the public mains supply, particularly those manufacturers producing categories of equipment present in the market in large volumes (e.g. IT Equipment, lighting equipment)
- Inspectors and quality assessors
Why should you use this standard?
A public low-voltage mains distribution network exists if more than one independent consumer can draw power from it. It’s important to protect such networks from harmonic currents as these can cause overheating of electrical distribution system wiring, transformer overheating and shortened transformer service life.
Therefore this standard covers a large variety of electrical and electronic equipment having an input current up to and including 16A per phase and intended for use by both the general public and professionals. The standard specifies limits for harmonic components of the input current which can be produced by equipment tested under specified conditions. The tests according to this document are type tests.
For systems with nominal voltages less than but not equal to 220 V (line-to-neutral), the limits have not yet been considered.
NOTE: Arc welding equipment which is not professional equipment, with a rated input current up to and including 16 A per phase, is included in this document. Arc welding equipment intended for professional use, as specified in IEC 60974-1, is excluded from this document and can be subject to installation restrictions as indicated in IEC 61000-3-12.
What’s changed since the last update?
This is a technical revision of BS EN 61000-3-2:2014 and includes the following significant technical changes:
- An update of the emission limits for lighting equipment with a rated power ≤ 25 W to take into account new types of lighting equipment
- The addition of a threshold of 5 W under which no emission limits apply to all lighting equipment
- The modification of the requirements applying to the dimmers when operating non-incandescent lamps
- The addition of test conditions for digital load side transmission control devices
- The removal of the use of reference lamps and reference ballasts for the tests of lighting equipment
- The simplification and clarification of the terminology used for lighting equipment
- The classification of professional luminaires for stage lighting and studios under Class A
- A clarification about the classification of emergency lighting equipment
- A clarification for lighting equipment including one control module with an active input power ≤ 2 W
- An update of the test conditions for television receivers
- An update of the test conditions for induction hobs, taking also into account the other types of cooking appliances
- For consistency with IEC 61000-3-12, a change of the scope of IEC 61000-3-2 from equipment with an input current ≤ 16 A to equipment with a rated input current ≤ 16 A