linear power supplies "outlawed"?

[John Rumm]

;-)

[Tim Watts]

On Monday 06 January 2014 14:04 John Rumm wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Fascinating - wonder how many fires those things start...

[Peter Parry]

Nope, blame the European Onion and Directive 2009/125/EC "Directive on the eco-design of Energy-using Products (EuP)". The same directive that killed the incandescent bulb. The Ecodesign Directive was transposed into UK law under the Ecodesign for Energy Related Products Regulations (SI 2010 No 2617).

In particular regulation (EC) No 278/2009 of 6 April 2009 "implementing Directive 2005/32/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to ecodesign requirements for no-load condition electric power consumption and average active efficiency of external power supplies"

This requires a power supply to draw no more than 0.5W under no load (reducing to 0.3W in 2015) and be of certain efficiency. Linear power supplies cannot meet these requirements.

[fred]

In article , Dave Plowman (News) writes

Never seen it happen, they are built to pretty stringent standards, either split bobbin (LF only) or reinforced insulation which, in the case of thin layers, is 3 layers of heat resistant insulation, each of which is proof to 1500Vac. Overall proof test is 3750Vac.

Thermal fuse required too (on LF).

They wont get approval if they don't.

You might be saying that cheap Chinese stuff wont meet approvals but that's a fake goods issue for Trading Standards.

[fred]

In article , Andrew Gabriel writes

Wot, never designed a mains switcher ;-)

Yes, it shorts out the common mode pump that would otherwise have the load and any cables connected to it jumping up and down like nobody's business. They'd never pass EMC testing without it.

[news]

I think you mean winded the incandescent bulb. They seem to be making a comeback under the name of energy saving halogen. (which is a bit of an oxymoron but there you go)

[reply]

I had another look to make sure I was not dreaming; the warning is not on the main product page but appears on the "further information" page, like this one:

[reply]

I guess it depends on the application; if it is something that is plugged in and switched on all the time whether it is in use or not, may be this is beneficial, but for something you plug in when you need and unplug when you do not, does standby current really matter?

[Peter Parry]

EU directives and reality rarely have anything to do with each other. Directives mean apparatchiks are doing "something". Doing something is very important so they try to do a lot of it.

Achieving something is much more difficult so it isn't important and doesn't attract much attention.

[Adrian C]

Also this site,

[therustyone]

Not LED strings. They have a pair of half wave rectifiers and aren't really isolated at all. Rusty