Power Consumption of a Capacitor.

Ideal power consumption of a capacitor is Zero.

For other parts, you can just check up the electrical parameters ( use a megger).

http://www.electronicrepairguide.com/test-capacitor.html

Hi there,

Download this - it has all your answers and is far too much for me to type.

www.alpestechnologie.com/gb/PDF/gb/Generalites/calculate_power_capacitors.pdf

Regards

Craig

Whulllll Vernon,

Dumb ole tradesmen had a simple way to know if a capacitor was "consuming amps." If you could not hold the back of a knuckle against one, or its dust cover, it was starting to break down and time to replace it. If it burned you, and was mounted on a motor - it was time to order a back up motor because the start circuit was getting sticky and letting the motor start switch stay closed too long. That way, when it failed fully and cooked off the start capacitor and burned up from locked rotor amps - replacing it was a few minutes instead of sometimes days for older OEM motors that had to be tracked down and shipped to suppliers. My point, and why I contributed was; Capacitors are NOT supposed to be using amperes. Due to impurities in their wax or electrolytes however, they use an unmeasurable amount and you know this becase the worse off those media are (more cheaply built or approaching failure) the hotter they run. That's about it. Hope you got some tech answers beyond my past working experience knowledge base. :-)

An ideal capacitor will not dissipate any power, but a real capacitor will have some power dissipation. This can be calculated from the tan delta which is often quoted for the capacitor.

Best regards,
Mark Empson
http://www.LMPhotonics.com

Ideal capacitor would not dissipate power but real capacitors has dielectric loss in the insulation layers and resistive loss on the leads.

just an ammeter indication is not a positive indiction of capacitor perfect working.

rightway to check the capacitor function is measuring its reactive power by connecting a var meter. simple method is megger test. initial zero resistance and slow increase to infinity. be carful in megger test good capacitor stores energy would be at high potential can cause serious shock, short terminal through discharge resister.

theorical capacitor will not consume power but practical capacitor will consume power depending to material from which it made.

Basically A hIGH EFFECIENT Power Capacitor consume power 3-5 watt/KVAR