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Leakage Current Information for Gems Safe and Load Pak Relays

Technical Help: Leakage Current

SAFE-PAK Products

Gems Sensors manufactures intrinsically safe and non-intrinsically safe relays for load handling capabilities.  On each of the catalog pages there is a column noted as ‘Leakage Current’. Leakage current is when the relay is deenergized, a small portion of current will still travel to the load side.  This is in the magnitude of only a few milli amps, but it is important to take note of, especially when using a small load. Typically, no voltage or relay will travel to the load side when the relay is deenergized, hence the term leakage.

leakage-current-lp

 

When using a small load with these Safe Paks and Load Paks, the leakage current may be enough to energize the load.  This can be a problem because then it will indicate that the relay or sensor is always on, which is not technically true.  When using loads that require a higher current to turn on, this small leakage current will have no effect. 

To counteract this leakage current, a resistor should be installed to take away the current, so it doesn’t get to the load and indicate a false trip. The resistor should be installed on the load side between the load power and neutral, but before the load side. See below image.

 leakage current 2

The resistor size will depend on the amount of leakage current.  Below are some recommendations.

Leakage Current:

  • 6mA: 2K 20-Watt Resistor, or 5K 10-Watt Resistor
  • 12 mA: 2K 10-Watt Resistor