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Article: How to measure power factor: a tutorial.(Power Analyzers)
- Article from:
- EE-Evaluation Engineering
- Article date:
- September 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Nelson Publishing. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Don't touch that oscilloscope if you plan to measure power factor. Factor out why it's better to use a wattmeter.
The phrase power factor frequently is used in the electrical and power electronics industry. For example, home, office, and industrial electrical equipment often is fitted with power factor-corrected power supplies. Many current electronics dictionaries define power factor as the cosine of the phase angle between voltage and current or cos[theta], but this definition will lead to errors and inaccuracies if applied to measurements on modern equipment.
So what is power factor? Why is it important, and how is it measured? Most of us remember ...