Power Adapter Meet Level 6 Energy Efficiency Standards

How Power Adapters Can Improve Technology to Meet Level 6 Energy Efficiency Standards

Power adapters have long been a key focus of the energy department.On February 10, 2014, the U.S. Department of Energy released the final version of its Energy Savings Standard (EPS) for power supplies to external power sources. This new rule revises its EISA 2007 EPS efficiency standards. The mandatory requirements will go into effect on February 10, 2016 for all external power supplies manufactured or imported into the United States. The new standard strictly defines the minimum average efficiency of an external power supply during active mode and the maximum input power consumption allowed in no-load mode. According to this standard, all power products such as power adapters and chargers currently exported to the U.S. are required to meet six levels of energy efficiency standards.

This presents a new challenge for many power supply engineers. Traditionally, switching power supplies tend to be most efficient when they are at or near their rated power. The efficiency curve does not cover the entire load range. Older designs of power supplies operate far less efficiently below their rated maximum load than at maximum load. This is due in part to fixed losses at no load.

With very stringent average efficiency and no-load input power requirements, incremental design changes or minor adjustments to existing designs, such as the use of higher quality components or the use of shorter lengths and thicker wires, to minimize losses due to conductors are not sufficient to meet the new requirements. Addressing the new Level 6 regulations requires significant design changes at all levels, from power system topology selection, to operational control techniques, to secondary rectification techniques, to the selection of control chips and other critical power devices. At the same time, attention is paid to the traditional minimum design when it comes to improving efficiency and no-load power consumption such as buffer circuits, optimization of auxiliary circuits, control integrated circuits and feedback circuits, operating and standby power consumption, resistive loading, safety capacitor discharge resistors, and start-up circuits, all of which need to be focused on and optimized to reduce losses.

Very high efficiency and low no-load power consumption can be achieved through a power control strategy that seamlessly switches to different modes of operation depending on the end-load. Each mode is designed for maximum efficiency and maximum no-load power consumption. In this way, the overall efficiency of the power supply becomes relatively flat over the entire load range. Operating the power supply in burst mode at no load will significantly reduce the no-load input power consumption, but there are very stringent no-load input power limits, and operating in burst mode by itself may not be sufficient to pass the requirements. There is also a need to reduce the power consumption of other devices. One is the operating power consumption of the controller IC, and another area where efficiency can be improved is in the secondary side rectifier circuit.

After Eahunt power supply R & D team's unremitting efforts to attack, Eahunt make all the power adapters to meet the six energy efficiency standards, to achieve higher efficiency and no-load lower power consumption. Eahunt has the industry's leading power supply R & D and production technology, safety, high efficiency, longevity, energy saving is the flying eagle on the quality of the requirements.

A thousand words, not as good as seeing is believing, Eahunt power quality in the end how, Eahunt welcome you to visit the factory, we will use the quality of the power adapter products and services to return your expectations and trust.