IEC 61000-3-2 Harmonics Standards Overview
By Muhamad Nazarudin Zainal Abidin, Schaffner EMC Inc., Edsion, NJ, USA
Introduction
There have been recent changes to the European Union’s Directive to assess compliance of a
product’s AC mains current harmonics. The purposeof this document is to provide an executive
overview of pertinent details and make them easier to understand. For more detailed information
please refer to the relevant standards available from the organization concerned.
Harmonics standard IEC 61000-3-2 Ed. 3 2005
This standard assesses and sets the limitfor equipment that draws input current ≤16A per phase.
Equipment that draws current >16A and ≤75A per phase is covered by IEC/TS 61000-3-12.
Harmonics measurement and evaluation methods for both standards are governed by IEC 61000-4-7.
Classification of equipment
Equipment can be grouped into one of 4 classes based on the following criteria as evaluated by the
IEC committee me