Is anyone using power factor correction at home on single phase ?

If you have a residential meter in South Africa PFC will do nothing for you as you are being billed for active power at the meter (kWh) therefore you are not charged for reactive power that you 'consume'.

If you are talking about those little gadgets that you plug into your wall that claim to magically reduce your power bill... They are a scam and most of them do nothing at all besides power a LED to make you think it is working.
 
Most homes use very little reactive power as most inductive devices comes with capacitors that help with PF correction

My inverter can show reactive and active and the difference is very small the highest i have ever seen the difference is about 50-60w most times lower like 20w

Have not checked for how many hours i have loads that cause this difference per day

But lets say i have loads like that that make up a combined continuous runtime of 4hrs a day at a avg of 25w

That would be a saving of 27c a day

How much am i willing to spend to save 27c a day nothing just switching of the kettle the moment it has boiled instead of waiting for it to switch of auto probably saves more

ie sometimes it takes about 20seconds before that auto click happens

So 2 coffee sessions a day you saved what you would have saved by power factor correction and no cost

But in the end i would say don't sweat the little stuff

As far as i have it we pay for reactive power to eskom/municipalities
 
if we were using 2 phase 110v to get 220 v ie 110+110v then it may help but you would need a humongous box full of capacitors to do it .
 
soulie said:
if we were using 2 phase 110v to get 220 v ie 110+110v then it may help but you would need a humongous box full of capacitors to do it .
Click to expand...
why would it help?

edit: Why would it matter more on a split phase installation than a single phase?
An imbalance in consumption on the two phases should not impact PF. right?
 
BasBas said:
why would it help?

edit: Why would it matter more on a split phase installation than a single phase?
An imbalance in consumption on the two phases should not impact PF. right?
Click to expand...
something to do with inductive and reactive loads on 110 v circuits maybe ,
 
this is claimed for 110 v circuits .
What is claimed is:
1. An apparatus for correcting power factor of an appliance having an inductive load to be coupled to an AC line source, said apparatus comprising:
a housing, said housing having a load side and a line side;
an electrical outlet located on said load side to be coupled to the appliance having the inductive load;
an electrical plug located on said line side to be coupled to the AC line source; and
a power factor correction circuit contained within said housing and being electrically coupled to said electrical plug and said electrical outlet when the AC line source is coupled to the electrical plug,
the appliance having the inductive load coupled to the electrical outlet when the appliance having the inductive load is turned on and drawing a predetermined current,
when the appliance having the inductive load is turned on, said power factor correction circuit turns on and corrects for excess reactive load in the appliance having the inductive load by reducing current on a line side of the power factor correction circuit,
 
Username: said:
Wow soulie up to know I always had the impression that you had a solid understanding of electrical theory.

But as BasBas has said we don't get charged for reactive power on residential meters so unless you are running close the maximum current of your supply there is no incentive to install power factor correction at home.

For industrial users there savings to be had.
Click to expand...
ummmm thats what i said in SA youre wasting your time and money.,maybe read my comment ,the second comment was on US voltages ,where they use 110 volt supplies there they say it helps ,so what are you on about ? .not sure i understand your critique
 
leon.davibe said:
Most homes use very little reactive power as most inductive devices comes with capacitors that help with PF correction

My inverter can show reactive and active and the difference is very small the highest i have ever seen the difference is about 50-60w most times lower like 20w

Have not checked for how many hours i have loads that cause this difference per day

But lets say i have loads like that that make up a combined continuous runtime of 4hrs a day at a avg of 25w

That would be a saving of 27c a day

How much am i willing to spend to save 27c a day nothing just switching of the kettle the moment it has boiled instead of waiting for it to switch of auto probably saves more

ie sometimes it takes about 20seconds before that auto click happens

So 2 coffee sessions a day you saved what you would have saved by power factor correction and no cost

But in the end i would say don't sweat the little stuff

As far as i have it we pay for reactive power to eskom/municipalities
Click to expand...
thanks I figured something like that I was just going through our supplier catalogue and found these geyser controller and pfc units and wondered if they made a difference
acdc.co.za

240VAC 1PH PFC AND GEYSER CONTROLLER C/W SURGE PROTECTION

240VAC 1PH PFC AND GEYSER CONTROLLER C/W SURGE PROTECTION
acdc.co.za acdc.co.za

soulie said:
we use single phase 380 v to get 220 v ,pfc is allready catered for via eskom ,any gizmo added may just screw with your consumption and burn your wallet
Click to expand...
Na Eskom power factor is kinda meh grid wide on our industrial 6.6kv line it's like 0.6 at best we installed a big 1400kva system to help it
 
obsidian86 said:
thanks I figured something like that I was just going through our supplier catalogue and found these geyser controller and pfc units and wondered if they made a difference
acdc.co.za

240VAC 1PH PFC AND GEYSER CONTROLLER C/W SURGE PROTECTION

240VAC 1PH PFC AND GEYSER CONTROLLER C/W SURGE PROTECTION
acdc.co.za acdc.co.za


Na Eskom power factor is kinda meh grid wide on our industrial 6.6kv line it's like 0.6 at best we installed a big 1400kva system to help it
Click to expand...
in industry its certainly beneficial but for at home use ,no real benefit unless youre maybe running a pump miles away from your supply there pfc will certainly help ,voltage drop over distance can be improved .allways remember as the cable current over distance increases so the voltage decreases ,but more susceptible on lower voltage applications .
 
soulie said:
in industry its certainly beneficial but for at home use ,no real benefit unless youre maybe running a pump miles away from your supply there pfc will certainly help ,voltage drop over distance can be improved .allways remember as the cable current over distance increases so the voltage decreases ,but more susceptible on lower voltage applications .
Click to expand...
0.6, That is Horrendous. Do you receive your power at 6.6kV or is it stepped down and handed off at a lower voltage?

I am studying a module on energy systems, this semester... very interesting. Think I am going to major in Power systems/High Voltage.
 
BasBas said:
0.6, That is Horrendous. Do you receive your power at 6.6kV or is it stepped down and handed off at a lower voltage?

I am studying a module on energy systems, this semester... very interesting. Think I am going to major in Power systems/High Voltage.
Click to expand...
high voltage is very interesting.thats the US major hurdle with their grid it was designed with no foresight .Eskom actually penalises you if you power factor is lower than 0.96 as it raises the current and drops the voltage ,which can be disastrous for the grid ,so with a power factor of 0.6 as stated by author ,i dunno .
 
BasBas said:
why would it help?

edit: Why would it matter more on a split phase installation than a single phase?
An imbalance in consumption on the two phases should not impact PF. right?
Click to expand...
i hear you ,but if you have as in the US 110 + 110 and you are maybe running two ,lets say aircons one in a big room under load constantly on one phase and one in a small room running a very light load on another phase ,i can see the power factor doing funky things .the easiest way to improve your power factor is to run any motor at full or close to full capacity ,ie a home compressor .
 
BasBas said:
0.6, That is Horrendous. Do you receive your power at 6.6kV or is it stepped down and handed off at a lower voltage?

I am studying a module on energy systems, this semester... very interesting. Think I am going to major in Power systems/High Voltage.
Click to expand...
this is our progression of installing the unit we got it fully opporational mid june


yeah we are rated incoming 6600 then step down in 2 substations to 400v


Screenshot_20230814-215104.png
Capturet.PNGCapturem.PNGCapturef (1).PNG


if anyone wanted to know how electricity usage is calculated


this is before the July increase tho so add a bit more on top



pf3.PNG
 
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Calculation for real power:
S=VA x cos(theta)/ VA x PF

Inductive loads will make your PF worse. I am surprised the Eskom pf is 0.6 and I wonder if they verify at the substation. Maybe the pf is only checked at industrial areas?

Harmonics are also big no no on the grid and must be filtered from network.
 
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