Herbert,

On Thu, 02 Nov 2006 23:28:11 -0500, Herbert Graf wrote:

>...
> > > I believe Europe is legislating PFC for switching power supplies, I
> > > don't know the details. TTYL
> > 
> > I don't know about the rest of Europe, but it was brought in about three years ago here - all PC power supplies have to have PFC now.
> 
> Wow, I didn't know it was that far along. What about other switching
> supplies? Any "banning" of no switcher wall warts like they are doing in
> California?

I believe it applies to all electrical appliances above 75W, so fridge/freezers have to have it, but small wall-warts don't.  It's not just things with 
switching power supplies, anything with a motor, high-powered fluorescent light fittings, etc. is affected too.  I understand it does apply to the whole 
of the EU incidentally, not just Britain, and falls within the CE mark regulations.
 
> I know here in North America barely anyone KNOWS what PFC correction is! :(

I first encountered it in a factory many years ago where the mains supply was upsetting some of the (Datapoint) computers, so we had someone 
come in with a Dranetz mains monitor.  There were occasional 1500V spikes, and it was traced to a PFC device somewhere in the factory supply that 
switched capacitors in and out of circuit as machines were turned on and off.  We arranged for separate supplies to be run in for the computers and 
all was well.

Cheers,


Howard Winter
St.Albans, England


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