Posts Tagged ‘power factor correction’
Power surges
Power surges is one of the most destructive of electrical power disturbances. Power surges are sudden spikes in voltage. They are usually brief, lasting only millionth of a second. Electricity used in homes across the US is in the form of single phase 120 volt, 60 hertz alternating current. The voltage oscillates from 0 to a peak of 169 volts, and most household appliances are designed to operate under this condition.
Power Surge
A power surge is a spike that goes above 169 volts. Power surges cause internal spikes in voltage in your appliances. Heat generated in the electrical arc can cause damage to the appliance. Overtime, the cumulative effects of these damages will cause the appliance to malfunction.
Power surges can come in different sources, the most common ones are from the utility companies during switching from power grids, from household appliances like air conditioner, refrigerators going on and off, and also from lightning. It is estimated that 20 million lightnings strikes the 48 contiguous US states each year. Surges can vary in duration and intensity ranging from several hundred to thousands of volts.
Most of us are aware of the need to protect electronic equipments from power surges using point of use surge protectors like power strips and uninterruptible power supplies. The installation of a power factor correction device like the Power Save 1200 power factor conditioning unit aside from providing power factor correction, has the added benefit of acting as a whole house surge protector, providing 2000 joules of surges protection.
Department of Energy explains power factor
DOE Explains Power Factor
Low power factor is inefficient and expensive. Low power reduces the distribution capacity by increasing the current flow. Correcting power factor enhances the efficiency of the electrical system and lowers electric bills.
To understand power factor, visualize a horse pulling a railroad cart from the side of a railroad track. The horse is pulling the cart at an angle to the direction of travel. The power required to move the cart is the working (real) power, the effort exerted by the horse is the total (apparent) power. Because of the angle of pull, not all the power exerted by the horse is used to move the cart. One can resolve this effort into two components, one that moves the cart along the direction of travel (functional power), and one that moves sideways (nonworking or reactive) power.
Power factor = Real Power ÷ Apparent Power
As an example, let’s say the real power is 100kVA, and the apparent power is 142kVA, then the Power Factor is 100 ÷ 142 = 0.70 or 70%, meaning that only 70% of the effort is doing useful work, while the rest (30%) is wasted.
Click on the link below to download a copy of the article.
Power Save 1200 tested by user for power saving
Power Save 1200
Some of you may be skeptical as to how much a power factor correction unit like the Power Save 1200 attached to your main circuit breaker panel can help you save on electricity and lower your electric bills. John Turtletaub from San Diego installed the Power Save 1200 power factor conditioning unit, and tested its performance. Below is his account regarding the ability of Power Save 1200 to correct the power factor.
“I must admit, I was a bit skeptical about your product (Power Save 1200), as an electrical engineer friend introduced me to Power-Save a few months ago…
While I was testing the unit, I had my friends present. I tested the product on the load side, and I found no difference in the amperage draw to my A/C unit on the circuit conductors directly from the breaker to it. At first, I was disgruntled. After settling down and thinking about what I had just done, I realized my error and clamped my Fluke meter on the mains directly behind the meter registering current drawn at the line side of the load center….and BINGO!!!!
On start up, the A/C unit went up to 91 amps and leveled out at 13 without the Power-Save 1200 on. When the Power Save unit was engaged it was a draw of 35 amps and leveled out at 8.75. That pretty much blew everyone away! After that, I tested everything with a motor load in my house. I was astonished at the significant reduction in amperage.
I have had, in addition, a lot of customers complaining of bad power spikes, sags, and all kinds of irregularities from their utilities which could benefit from the unit.“
Power factor and dwindling salmon population on the Columbia River
I just read about this fascinating story as I was reading an article on power factor (Power factor:Dissipating the Myth, by David Gibson) on the web, I thought I’d share it with you. Colin Mattoon* recounted that as a child living in Lewiston, Idaho some 465 miles inland from the ocean, 4 to 8 million salmon passed Lewiston on an annual spawning run. Today, with the extensive hydro-power development, most of the 6 species of salmon that was returned every year by the millions are on the verge of extinction.
Columbia River Dam
There are today over 250 large hydropower projects, over 1000 total dams and impoundments along the Columbia River drainage basin (not including the Canadian portion of the river). There are 8 dams between Lewiston, Idaho and the Pacific coast. Salmon are evolved for free flowing cold water streams. Despite the presence of fish passage facilities, the dams create enormous, sun warmed slack water pools, where once pristine cold water flowed. Over 95% of the migrating juvenile salmon are killed by a combination of high water temperature and physical injury while passing through turbines.
It turned out that the Pacific Northwest have such a huge surplus of electrical power that the federally owned Bonnville Power Administration has had no incentive to deal with the reactive power loss within the transmission grid. Most politicians and ordinanary citizens have never heard of power factor, and reactive power factor loss, that talking to politicians about power factor correction was akin to talking about “space alien visiting earth”. According to Mattoon, of the 8 dams on the Columbia, 4 of them can be breached and there will still be enough power if effort are made to eliminate the reactive power factor loss. And the flow of the river can be partly restored to avert an extinction of the salon population and the consequential economic loss to the whole region).
(* http://www.splatco.com/tips/pwrfact/salmon.txt/pfarticl.htm )
How much electricity does your appliance use?
According to the Department of Energy, the average cost of operating various appliances are shown in the above diagram (please click twice on the diagram to see an enlarged view). DOE uses 9.4 cents per kilowatt-hour to arrive at these estimates. Most of us actually pay a lot more than that, more like double that amount. A new Energy Star appliance will save about 20% over the the current required Federal standard and about 40% over one purchase in 2001. So one can see how improving energy efficiency can result in substantial energy saving and lower energy cost.
One of the most effective way to achieve energy saving for the whole house without replacing your major household appliances is to install a Power Save 1200 power factor correction device. By correcting the power factor one can achieve 15-30% energy savings at a fraction of the cost of replacing your appliances. The cost saving in lower electric bills can help pay for the cost of the power factor correction device within months.