Toggle navigationeGauge Logo

    Main Menu

  • Overview
    • Home Energy Monitoring
    • Commercial Energy Monitoring
  • eGuard
    • Overview
    • Portfolio
    • Portfolio
    • Other Software
    • Register a Device
    • Device Map
  • Support
    • Support Knowledgebase
    • Misc Support
    • Find My Device
    • Order Lookup
    • Internationalization
    • Firmware Release Notes
  • Company
    • Our Company
    • Blog
    • Partners
    • Careers
    • Contact

    Online Store

  • Shop Now
  • Account

  • Find
  • eGuard Login
  • Blog

    • Monitoring System Serves as Foundation for Energy Efficiency at Little Elementary
    • Continuous Monitoring Reveals Serious Malfunction at North Arvada Middle School
    • Renew Our Schools 2.0
    • How to Download Demand Data to a CSV File From Your eGauge
    • 3 Tips For a Successful CT Meter Installation
    • What is Power Factor?
    • How to Measure Peak Demand with Set and Rolling Averages
    • How to Set a Freezer Failure Alert
    • A Risky Home Appliance: The Meat Freezer
    • Why the Whitefish Contract is Suspicious
    • The Status of Submetering
    • Utilizing Battery Storage II
    • Utilizing Battery Storage
    • Use It or Lose It: The Residential SREC
    • Commercial Demand Charge
    • Aaahh!!! Real Energy Monsters
    • Knowledge of Power is Power
    • Get Schooled on Your Energy Usage
    • Open-Source Open Community

Company

    • Company

    • Blog

      • Monitoring System Serves as Foundation for Energy Efficiency at Little Elementary
      • Continuous Monitoring Reveals Serious Malfunction at North Arvada Middle School
      • Renew Our Schools 2.0
      • How to Download Demand Data to a CSV File From Your eGauge
      • 3 Tips For a Successful CT Meter Installation
      • What is Power Factor?
      • How to Measure Peak Demand with Set and Rolling Averages
      • How to Set a Freezer Failure Alert
      • A Risky Home Appliance: The Meat Freezer
      • Why the Whitefish Contract is Suspicious
      • The Status of Submetering
      • Utilizing Battery Storage II
      • Utilizing Battery Storage
      • Use It or Lose It: The Residential SREC
      • Commercial Demand Charge
      • Aaahh!!! Real Energy Monsters
      • Knowledge of Power is Power
      • Get Schooled on Your Energy Usage
      • Open-Source Open Community
    • Partners

    • Careers

    • Contact


  • Back to Top
  • Home
  • Company
  • Blog
  • 2018
  • January
  • 22
  • What is Power Factor?

Search Blog

RSS Feed

Feed Icon
Subscribe here to our Atom feed for our latest blog entries

Questions or Comments?

Send us an email at blog@egauge.net or connect with us on social media and we will respond as soon as possible.

What is Power Factor?

Written on Jan. 22, 2018

Last update on Jan. 29, 2018 .

What is Power Factor?

Power Factor Explained

Power factor is the ratio of real power (kW) to apparent power (kVA). This ratio can be a value from 0 to 1, and it indicates how efficiently an AC circuit is using electricity, with a value of 1 representing high efficiency. The third type of power, called reactive power (kVAr), causes electronics to be inefficient and draws the ratio closer to 0 by creating a difference between real power and apparent power.

Here’s a common analogy that compares each type of power to a horse pulling a cart. It says that if the horse can’t run directly in front of the cart while pulling it, then some of the horse's total effort will be lost to pulling the cart slightly sideways. Only the force in the direction of movement is considered work, so you add this “forward” vector to the “perpendicular” vector, and the result is the effective work done by the horse. (Classic tip-to-tail vector adding for you Intro to Physics takers)

In AC circuits, inductive components (capacitors, motors, compressors, etc…) prevent the “horse” from running directly in front of the cart, which increases the reactive power and increases the difference between real and apparent power. The result? A greater difference between real and apparent power and a lower power factor.



Written By: Ed Pantzar, Marketing Manager at eGauge Systems

Tags : PF VA kVAr kW power powerfactor

Short url : http://www.egauge.net/blog/F/

  • 3 Tips For a Successful CT Meter Installation →
  • ← How to Measure Peak Demand with Set and Rolling Averages

eGauge Systems LLC
1644 Conestoga Street, Suite 2
Boulder, CO 80301
1-877-342-8431
1-720-545-9767
info@egauge.net

About | Policies | Contact
social media logosocial media logo
© 2021 eGauge Systems LLC