| power factor correction is Fact .. Not Fiction Wal-mart has sold over 100,000,000
Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) bulbs.
Most, if not all these bulbs use about twice the energy
rated on the box in watts.
A resistive load, like a normal filament light bulb only
uses what it is "rated" at. A 60 watt bulb used 60 watts
of energy. It only uses real power, no reactive power
and the apparent power is equal to the real power.
The CFLs are an inductive load drawing real power and
reactive and the total amount of apparent power is
more than the total watts on the meter.
Using a Kill-A-Watt meter you can see this in action.
Say the CFL is labeled 17 watts, your Kill-A-Watt meter
will say the Volt-Amperes is like 33 and That's What you
pay the electric company for is the 33 Volt-Amperes, not
the 17 watts.
Let the CFL get HOT .. the power used will INCREASE.
Check out the Power Factor on that CFL, it could be as
low as 0.50
In Europe they didn't allow this to continue and the
CFLs there have had the Power Factor FIXED !!!
We in the USA are suckered into paying higher
electric bills.
Read more: Are CFL's Designed to Make Us Pay More On Our Power Bills?
»www.atlanticfreepress.com/conten···4876/81/ |
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Reviews:
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2 edits | The meters used for billing measure ACTIVE energy, disregarding the REACTIVE component.
Anyway, even if the meters were to measure the apparent power, one of the first components in a CFL is a rectifier bridge... then a capacitor...
In other news, a dinosaur was spotted running on I-95. |
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| reply to PFCFacts
The author of that article needs to go and get the FACTS. Residential customer meters measure kWh not kVAh. »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_meter The author says 'We can easily check this for ourselves: Go outside to where your billing meter is, and look at the dial: It reads in “Volt-Amperes”.' If he had looked at a residential meter for himself maybe he would not have made such a big mistake. |
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 cdruGo ColtsPremium,MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN
kudos:5 | reply to PFCFacts
Maybe we should all go out and purchase Power Savers to correct this conspiracy and stick it back to the man.  |
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 mityfowlPremium
join:2000-11-06
Dallas, TX | reply to PFCFacts
Well this is a lie! I just used my Kill o Watt meter on 2 different CLF lights and they read correctly, exactly on the rated number. |
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Gres7
join:2001-03-05
Brooklyn, NY | reply to Automate
You do know that
W(Watt)=V(volt)*A(Amps)
so substitute W with VA is perfectly fine. |
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 UHFAll static, all day, ForeverPremium,MVM
join:2002-05-24
 ·surpasshosting
 ·Callcentric
 ·DIRECTV
·Dish Network
·VOIPo
| reply to PFCFacts
It's bull.
I asked the manager of my power provider about this once. Residential customers are not billed for apparent power. Power Factor makes NO DIFFERENCE for residential customers. They only worry about it for commercial and industrial users. |
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cdruGo ColtsPremium,MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN
kudos:5 Reviews:
·Frontier FiOS
| reply to Gres7
said by Gres7:You do know that W(Watt)=V(volt)*A(Amps) so substitute W with VA is perfectly fine. You do realize that the entire point of this thread is taking into account power factor correction. Watts only equal V-A when the power factor is 1 (e.g. incandescent lighting). When the power factor is not equal to 1, you need to divide the Watt rating by the power factor to get the V-A rating.
More Info |
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| reply to PFCFacts
I personally tested a power factor correction "device" (capacitor in a NEMA case) by running a very reactive load (air compressor cycling from tank empty to full) while an actual utility watt hour meter (disk type) was in the circuit. The sales guy peddling the thing was all excited about how his portable ammeter showed so much less draw with the capacitor hooked up.
He went away puzzled and chastened, though, when the tests were over. With or without the capacitor, the cumulative energy used to fill the compressor's tank was EXACTLY the same, according to the utility meter. His cap. did not change the power level at all (as I'd expected). He never did call us back. |
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 mattmagPremium,ExMod 2000-03
join:2000-04-09
NW Illinois
kudos:3 | reply to PFCFacts
Guys, guys......Please don't feed the trolls!
Anyone with an anonymous username that matches the topic of the post and links to an article is a troll, and this guy hits the mark 100%. |
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 DennisPremium,Mod
join:2001-01-26
Algonquin, IL
kudos:4 | reply to PFCFacts
If a member had posted this, I'd leave it open for discussion...but since it's anonymous and does feel like a cut and paste job I'm gonna shut it down. |
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