Study on inrush current measuring technique for lighting equipment

This study is to measure inrush current for lighting equipment by using measuring circuit. Inrush current is existed in electrical equipment that has electronic components in its circuitry. For lighting equipment, one of the reasons why it existed is because of the capacitor which is connected parallel with the load. The capacitor is actually to filter harmonic contents but at the same time it will increase the magnitude of current during turning on. It occur too fast typically a few milliseconds. Even though it occurs too fast, it might cause problems to lighting equipment if it not able to stand the high magnitude of current. The measurement circuit of this technique consists of a full bridge rectifier, capacitor and resistor which are connected in series. The capacitor will act as battery and fed the load after being fully charged. The measurement circuit is divided by three stages and each stage is separated by using one way switch. The measurement of the inrush current value can be done by using an ammeter which is connected in series with the load. The value of the voltage that is flowing through the capacitor can be measured by using a voltmeter. The voltmeter must be placed parallel to the capacitor. The measurement for this technical paper is only covers for single phase lighting equipment. The scope for this technical paper was limited to class C as state in IEC 61000-3-2 standard which is only for lighting equipment with power consumption of 25W. The supply source requirements are accordance to the guidance that has been provided by MS IEC 62384:2012. This approach is another ways to measure inrush current despite of other existing methods which are frequently used.