Capacitors and Loss Factor Meters

Never heard of a "loss factor meter". Chances are this is some sort of voodoo BS meter used by someone to try to sell people on the false benefits of power factor improvement.

I suspect that you are asking how to measure power factor, not 'loss factor', since you have referenced capacitors.

Power factor does not equate directly to "losses" on the consumer end, though it can affect wire and equipment size.

Please confirm if this is a homework question as I suspect. CJM

I believe the gentleman is referring to dissipation factor or D.F., a 'quality' measurement. This is usually measured by a capacitance bridge or by some DVMs with a rough estimation of D.F. Generally, only the capacitance bridge is very accurate. I suggest you visit the website of a capacitor manufacturer, such as Illinois Capacitor, and look up their technical library for a good explanation. If you can't find something there that explains it for you, come back to this thread and ask, I will give you more information. Sorry I don't have time at the moment.

Like the others, I'm not at all sure what you are looking for. Here is one possibility:

http://ludens.cl/Electron/esr/esr.html

I've built two of these (misplaced the first one for a while), and find them very useful, especially since they work at such a low voltage that they don't reach semiconductor conduction voltages, so capacitors can be reliably checked in circuit.

I even developed a Printed Circuit layout for it, but I couldn't find it just now, So I'd have to search my backups, or take a photo of one...

Perhaps this link may contain the information you are looking for:

//www.laidback.org/~daveg/academic/labreports/rep4/SCHRBRDG.html