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Charging box Sales ban in Sweden for Non compliance to EU standards

Shamith Gambhir

I was going through the news of Swedish authorities “Elsalerhetverket” imposing a Ban on Easee chargers recently.

Easee is a renown Norwegian EVSE company with almost 100000 installations of EVSE in Sweden alone.

https://www.electrive.com/2023/03/15/elsalerhetverket-imposes-sales-ban-on-easee-wall-boxes-in-sweden/

 According to a ten-page letter from the Swedish supervisory authority Elsälerhetverket to Easee it is mentioned

"Contrary to the declaration, apparently no FI switch installed" - and this increases the risk of fire. In addition, some EU declarations are said not to have been fulfilled, which could also have an impact in other countries. There are several allegations that affect the safety of the product. The main accusation: "The operating instructions state that the product has a built-in FI circuit breaker. The product is not equipped with an earth leakage circuit breaker (30mA AC/6mA DC) as indicated in the instructions for use". So: "The instructions do not mention that the product must be preceded by a residual current circuit breaker if it is to be connected to the fixed network."

According to electrive.net, there are  “additional defects that go beyond the defects identified in the previous tests and investigations by the electrical safety authority. In addition to the lack of proof of the function of the RCD and DC protection, the product fails the overvoltage test LLLN->CP, which is a serious defect have also complained about "complete instructions for use".

According to Elsäkerhetsverket , the company stated in its EU declaration of conformity that the product conforms to the standards, but the opposite is the case. The product must meet all the requirements of the standards and not just selected parts. In addition, it was noticed during the examination that the labeling defects now listed had already been criticized in June 2021. This can have bad consequences. If the company cannot refute or eliminate the allegations, the worst that can happen is a sales ban. 

Most of the EVSE use the technique similar to Easee with RDC-DD inside the EVSE tripping the main relay.

There is a lot of confusion with this? can anyone clarify on the above issue?

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  • 0

    There's some more detail buried a bit deeper - although as it comes from a member of the IEC committee who is also the head of an Easee competitor, there may or may not be a pinch of salt involved...

    Regarding the RCD, Erni does not fundamentally contradicts Easee and its integrated circuit instead of a separate RCD, but he does point out a technical detail. As a Mode 3 charging station permanently connected to the mains, the Easee Home falls into overvoltage category 3. “This requires a contact gap of at least 3 mm for the switching relays,” says Erni. “However, the relays used have a contact gap of only 2.3 mm. They may be smaller and cheaper than correct components, but they clearly do not meet the regulations.”

    Devices certified according to EN 61008-1 and IEC 62955 must also safely separate short-circuit currents. “The relays installed cannot do exactly this reliably. If the contacts weld, there is no separation, and the RCD can no longer function. There is a danger to life,” says the executive.

    there also seems to be some dispute about the control/pilot circuit..

    “The 61851-1 standard prescribes extra low voltage (SELV or PELV) for the CP circuit. A defined insulation voltage test must be fulfilled for this,” says Erni. “The indication that the CP pin cannot be touched does not cancel this requirement under any circumstances.”

       - Andy..

  • 0 in reply to AJJewsbury

    Odd!  When we use relays to switch mains, or more generally power to safety critical things, we use force guided ones and monitor the auxiliary contacts. If the main contact were somehow to jam in the wrong state, in this case 'on' then the aux contact would also be jammed on, and then the control system should refuse to start.

    In things that really matter, where a fault could endanger life, rather than just remove one layer of protection,  you use two - one to open the supply, and the other to short (or really near- short with a low resistance ) the load - if the supply is still on when the load short is applied then either supply-side ADS or an internal weak link lets go and puts the kit irrevocably beyond use.  This has been standard practice on microwave ovens for years. I'd expect the techniques to be familiar to any product designer as an acceptable way of achieving automatic fault detection and lock off.

    See this patent

    or this one from 1977.

    Mike.

Reply
  • 0 in reply to AJJewsbury

    Odd!  When we use relays to switch mains, or more generally power to safety critical things, we use force guided ones and monitor the auxiliary contacts. If the main contact were somehow to jam in the wrong state, in this case 'on' then the aux contact would also be jammed on, and then the control system should refuse to start.

    In things that really matter, where a fault could endanger life, rather than just remove one layer of protection,  you use two - one to open the supply, and the other to short (or really near- short with a low resistance ) the load - if the supply is still on when the load short is applied then either supply-side ADS or an internal weak link lets go and puts the kit irrevocably beyond use.  This has been standard practice on microwave ovens for years. I'd expect the techniques to be familiar to any product designer as an acceptable way of achieving automatic fault detection and lock off.

    See this patent

    or this one from 1977.

    Mike.

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