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ako avatar image
ako asked

Are IP43 Chargers EN 60335-2-29 compliant?

I posted here because the reply from the email address Victron give for technical enquiries and sales was a waste of time .

" Many thanks for your request and interesse in our products!

For quotes on pricing, system support, repairs and technical questions in general we would like to advise you to contact your local distributer or authorized dealer. "


I have had experience of the local dealer and i know that they will tell you whatever they need to in order to sell something .

The reason for needing the information is because i needed to know if they advertise their products output by either the arithmetical amperes or the efficient amperes method , reading below you will appreciate there is a big difference . I have Ferve 16 amp charger and a second 20 amp one a the moment and its output of the Ferve is around 23 amps and the other around 29 amps as both companies advertise their products using the legal EU method .


" The value of the charge current must be expressed in arithmetical amperes. This is the only
value officially accepted under the EN 60335-2-29 European regulations.
Nevertheless, many battery charger manufacturers express the charge current of their
products in efficient amperes, thus not complying with these European regulations. The
reason is that 1 arithmetic ampere is equal to 1.4142 effective amperes. So a battery charger
of 8 effective amperes must actually be considered as one of 5.66 amperes. Therefore, to
avoid deception, it is necessary to know whether the battery charger manufacturer uses
arithmetic or effective amperes when stating the charge current. "
charger
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Valentin Bonnet avatar image Valentin Bonnet commented ·

Battery chargers like the ones made by Victron are outputting DC power at a constant value.

Effective (=RMS) amps would be for AC power or power that varies a lot in time.

Victron chargers are outputting their stated current in a constant manner. So here RMS and Arithmetic are exactly the same value.

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kevgermany answered ·

I'm not a Victron employee. But I do have chargers from them.

Firstly all products are EU tested/compliant and marked with the approval stamps.

Secondly the chargers all output their rated power/amps continuously. Most lower output if they overheat. I can confirm from experience.

Thirdly they will output more than their rating for short periods.

Fourthly, battery charging is affected by the current a battery will accept.

Hope this helps.



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kevgermany avatar image kevgermany ♦♦ commented ·

I asked around. Was told:

Victron IP43 chargers are in compliance with EN-IEC 60335-2-29

Declaration of conformity here https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/Phoenix-Smart-IP43-Chargers-2021-12-29.pdf

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ako avatar image
ako answered ·

Thank you for the explanation but not sure exactly what you mean by a constant current . Are you saying for instance that a 24 volt 25 amp Victron charger would output a constant amps even while the voltage and therefore the resistance in the Batterie bank were increasing , if so then i can understand that both the two examples of measuring would be the same . My chargers although outputs almost 50% more Amps than quoted the amps do drop off as the batteries charge in the same way my solar charge controller does when its in Absorption stage . The advantage if the chargers i have now are if the weather is bad and i need to run a generator for just two hours then my 20 amp chargers will provide around 56 amp into the batterie bank which might be sufficient for our needs at the time while a constant 20 amps would only have produced 40 amps in the same time , possibly over many hours the amps produced might be identical by the time the bank is 100% charged if one continues at constant 20 amps and the other reduces to a trickle .

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kevgermany avatar image
kevgermany answered ·

The power supply mode is constant at the voltage you set, load or no load. If you add a load it will output up to its rated current continuously. If it starts to overheat, it will reduce the output current. If you try to draw more than the rated maximum current, it will only allow this for a short while, caters for startup current in some devices. It will not deliver 50% more than rated output continuously, even with a short across the output terminals.

Current into the battery will be limited by what the battery accepts at the charger set voltage. The charger cannot force the battery to take more than this. So as lithium starts to resist charging over about 90%, current will drop if the battery limits it.

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