The standard establishes quality, safety and electromagnetic compatibility requirements for power frequency overvoltage protectors.
Power frequency overvoltages are those whose duration is relatively long (several cycles) and may cause serious damages to the installation and to the electrical equipment. The European standard EN 50550 normalizes the specifications for this kind of surge protection devices.
Power frequency overvoltage protection devices are used in combination with circuit breakers, RCCB (Residual-Current Circuit Breaker) or RCBO (Residual Current Circuit Breaker with Overload protection). The same POP can be designed for more than one main protection device.
The standard stresses the importance of the non-actuating time of the protection devices, fixing a minimum break time of 3 seconds for 275V and a maximum of 0,2s for 400V. Such are the cases of our combined protector, KIT ATCONTROL, and our permanent overvoltage protector IGATEST, both certified according to EN 50550.