Hi everyone,
You could be probably familiar with the subject matter below, but to me, it was something that I never paid much attention to.
Your utilities provider is concerned with:
1. How much electricity you consume.
2. Their cost of pushing/getting this power to your appliances/home/shop.
In other words, they wanna know and wanna increase the efficiency of supplying/pushing that electricity to you.
Any applicance that utilises motors (eg: our Makitas, PCs, Flex, refrigerators, fans, drills etc) presents an "inductive load", and hence, the utilities company has to produce more current to supply the electricity demanded by your motorised applicances.
Your electricity meter senses this "inductive load" (if any), and automatically calculates a "Power Factor" figure (0.00-1.00).
If you hv lots of motorised applicances running for lengthy durations, your utility provider's "supply efficiency" suffers, and that means, they incure "higher-than-normal" cost to supply electricity to your motorised applicances. If this worsens to a specific level, they will start charging YOU a penalty - POWER FACTOR PENALTY.
This is unrelated to how much electricity you consume. This penalty might or might not be shown inside your electricity bill (depending on country), and many people hv not even noticed about the inclusion of this penalty as they only look at the TOTAL payable:wall:wall
Optimum Power Factor: 1.00
Normal Power Factor: Approx 0.85-0.99 (in most homes)
Low Power Factor: Below approx 0.85. Once below 0.85, they'll impose the penalty. . In some countries, this figure might range from 0.70-0.90.
In some countries, the above applies to commercial business and offices, while in other countries, it applies to domestic homes as well.
=================================================================
Tips to reduce or eliminate any Power Factor Penalties charges:
1. Reduce the no. of motorised appliances :bawling:
2. Reduce any speed variations of motorised applicances (eg: speed control on Makita 9227C):bat
3. Install 1 or more capacitors next to your main fusebox. This acts as a temporary reservoir so that when you switch on your Makita (example) and vary its speed your Makita is drawing current via the capacitor and not directly from the mains, where the "inductive load" presented by your Makita can be detected by your electronic electricity meter. Your meter calculates your Power Factor.
4. For normal fluorescent lights using internal "normal ballast', ensure there's a small capacitor inside the fluorescent metal housing. It helps greatly. If budget allows it, convert to "electronic ballasts" that will consume less current.
=================================================================
In my shop, the electrician has installed 1pc of huge capacitor to address this Power Factor issue. For the past 2 mths (after installation), I've experienced a substantial reduction in my electricity bills cos they are no longer imposing a penalty on me. This drastic reduction was also contributed by 70 normal fluorescent ballasts being converted to electronic ballasts.
My custom sprayer, who also has lots of motorised stuff running for the entire day, installed 2 large caps, and he has also enjoyed great savings in electricity charges.
Note:
Interestingly, I was told by the utilities company that in certain Scandinavian countries, the utilities provider are very focused and much more critical about Power Factor, and less so on current usage (!!!)...cos they wanna increase their own company's supply efficiency to the max. Helps keep their costs down.
You could be probably familiar with the subject matter below, but to me, it was something that I never paid much attention to.
Your utilities provider is concerned with:
1. How much electricity you consume.
2. Their cost of pushing/getting this power to your appliances/home/shop.
In other words, they wanna know and wanna increase the efficiency of supplying/pushing that electricity to you.
Any applicance that utilises motors (eg: our Makitas, PCs, Flex, refrigerators, fans, drills etc) presents an "inductive load", and hence, the utilities company has to produce more current to supply the electricity demanded by your motorised applicances.
Your electricity meter senses this "inductive load" (if any), and automatically calculates a "Power Factor" figure (0.00-1.00).
If you hv lots of motorised applicances running for lengthy durations, your utility provider's "supply efficiency" suffers, and that means, they incure "higher-than-normal" cost to supply electricity to your motorised applicances. If this worsens to a specific level, they will start charging YOU a penalty - POWER FACTOR PENALTY.
This is unrelated to how much electricity you consume. This penalty might or might not be shown inside your electricity bill (depending on country), and many people hv not even noticed about the inclusion of this penalty as they only look at the TOTAL payable:wall:wall
Optimum Power Factor: 1.00
Normal Power Factor: Approx 0.85-0.99 (in most homes)
Low Power Factor: Below approx 0.85. Once below 0.85, they'll impose the penalty. . In some countries, this figure might range from 0.70-0.90.
In some countries, the above applies to commercial business and offices, while in other countries, it applies to domestic homes as well.
=================================================================
Tips to reduce or eliminate any Power Factor Penalties charges:
1. Reduce the no. of motorised appliances :bawling:
2. Reduce any speed variations of motorised applicances (eg: speed control on Makita 9227C):bat
3. Install 1 or more capacitors next to your main fusebox. This acts as a temporary reservoir so that when you switch on your Makita (example) and vary its speed your Makita is drawing current via the capacitor and not directly from the mains, where the "inductive load" presented by your Makita can be detected by your electronic electricity meter. Your meter calculates your Power Factor.
4. For normal fluorescent lights using internal "normal ballast', ensure there's a small capacitor inside the fluorescent metal housing. It helps greatly. If budget allows it, convert to "electronic ballasts" that will consume less current.
=================================================================
In my shop, the electrician has installed 1pc of huge capacitor to address this Power Factor issue. For the past 2 mths (after installation), I've experienced a substantial reduction in my electricity bills cos they are no longer imposing a penalty on me. This drastic reduction was also contributed by 70 normal fluorescent ballasts being converted to electronic ballasts.
My custom sprayer, who also has lots of motorised stuff running for the entire day, installed 2 large caps, and he has also enjoyed great savings in electricity charges.
Note:
Interestingly, I was told by the utilities company that in certain Scandinavian countries, the utilities provider are very focused and much more critical about Power Factor, and less so on current usage (!!!)...cos they wanna increase their own company's supply efficiency to the max. Helps keep their costs down.