|
|
Article: Power factor: two myths and some words of comfort. (Heating Highlights).(electrical energy)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Process Heating
- Article date:
- May 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 BNP Media. 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)
|
When you are buying electrical energy (kilowatt-hours), why should your supplier care about your power factor (PF) and why should he give you a better deal for having a high power factor?
The answer: At power factors less than one, your supplier's generators, transmission cables and transformers hit their kVA output limit before his generators have reached their full rated kW output. This denies him the extra revenue that delivering full rated kW output to his consumer base would give him.
HOW WE USUALLY DESCRIBE POWER FACTOR
Two figures can help demonstrate these concepts. Figure 1 shows a generator feeding power to an inductive load -- for ...