Electrical Power Factor: Save Hundreds or Even Thousands In Your Electrical Bill. Do it Yourself!

What is Power Factor?Is the ratio of the actual electrical power dissipated by an AC circuit to the output of the RMS (root-mean-square) values of current and voltage. The difference between the two is caused by reactance in the circuit and represents power that does no useful work.To understand power factor, we'll first start with the definition of some basic terms:Power is measured in Watts.Volts X Amps X Power Factor = WattsWatts only equals Volts X Amps when the Power Factor is 1.Most of the time the Power Factor is less than 1.Power = Watts : True PowerVolts X Amps = VA : Apparent PowerK added before these means kilo or 1,000 times the number, 1 KV = 1,000 V.KW is Working Power (also called Actual Power or Active Power or Real Power). It is the power that powers the equipment and performs useful work.KVAR is Reactive Power. It is the power that magnetic devices (transformer, motor, and relay) needs to produce the magnetizing flux.KVA is Apparent Power. It is the "vectorial summation" of KW and KVAR.Today's industrial, commercial, retail and even domestic premises are frequently populated by electronic devices such as PCs, servers, monitors, and photocopiers that are habitually powered by switched mode power supplies (SMPS). If not properly planned, these can present nonlinear loads which impose harmonic currents and possibly voltages onto the mains power network.If this cup of beer is your electrical bill, the liquid is what you use (KW), the foam is the reactive load (KVAR), but you pay for the apparent usage (KVA)Harmonics can hurt cabling and equipment within this network, also as other equipment connected to it. Difficulties include overheating and fire risk, high voltages and circulating currents, equipment malfunctions and component failures, and other possible consequences.A nonlinear load is subject to generate these harmonics if it has a lower power factor. Other devices can lower the power factors without creating harmonics. This post looks at these issues, the circumstances that can lead to damaging harmonic generation, and practical approaches to reducing it.Power Factor (P.F.) is the ratio of Working Power to Apparent Power.Looking at our beer mug analogy above, power factor would be the ratio of beer (KW) to beer plus foam (KVA).KVA = VA x 1,000P.F. = KW / KVA = Cos QKVAR / KVA = Sin QKVA = v(KW2 + KVAR2) = KV * I * v3