Power Factor of Small Home/Office Appliances

For $20.00USD you can develop your own data base.

This is not an endorsement, but I have one and they are neat.

Empowers you to save $100's on electric bills!

ThinkGeek :: Kill-A-Watt

thank you.Can this be used in a 220V(L/N)system?

Sorry, the plug configuration on the front might be a clue. It's 120V 15 AMP service.

Someone may make other one's but they are more expensive.

Can somebody recommend a manufacturer making same item suitable for 220V 50Hz to be used in countries like UK

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Why do you care?

JRaef, normally your responses are well worth reading but not in this instance. This was a response I would expect from others and not from you.

My intent was to start a dialog with the OP 'Guest" as to why they want to know the PF of household appliances, rather than my guessing as to why they wanted to know. PF of household appliances is almost completely meaningless in the bigger scheme of things. Often, people have been sold on "energy savers" that claim to reduce energy by improving power factor, and this is essentially false.

But we still don't know why he wanted to know.

Please register people, it's hard to address you all as Guest...

The power factor of many of the devices you mentioned can vary widely by manufacturer or even by model from the same manufacturer. And generally it's not even the sort of data that anyone keeps track of for any useful purpose.

If we make measurements and keep a record and compare with the nameplate data we can assure the users that the product is safe.Some may inject harmonics/EMI into the system .These parameters should measured at the factory by authorised persons and marketing to be allowed only if they are within safe limits.Some salespersons will give a safe figure to convince the buyers.

Yes, we *could* do that. But we have certification agencies that do that sort of thing for us, don't we? That's assuming of course that you trust that when a product is marked as tested that the mark itself isn't fake. (And belive me, some are).

If you're suggesting that we should do such things to keep people safe (?) then I should think there are many other more important safety parameters with products that we should inspect for ourselves than the harmonics / EMI they emit.

In under developed countries low-efficient products(low initial cost) which consume much higher power than energy efficient counterpart are freely available causing innocent users more power bill and other side effects mentioned earlier(pf,emi,harmonics,flicker,noise,safety aspects etc).Due to economic reasons and due to their political connection with those countries exporting those items governments in under developed countries do not ban them.The Engineers cannot over rule politicians. The engineer,s importance is overshadowed by politicians and even some engineers keep silent to get favours.

Hang on. There are several topics here and they are becoming confused.

1. The power factor of a particular domestic appliance is of little interest, as electricity providers do not charge domestic users on poor power factor. There is nothing to be gained by improving it, which is why power factor correction [PFC] at domestic premises is practically unheard of. If a feeder cable is becoming warm and perceived to be in need of power factor improvement, then the supply is too small and the utility company needs to be contacted to arrange for an aup-grade to the supply cable. Usually, domestic power cables are well-oversized for the average daily demand. Here, for example, the daily domestic electricity consumption is about 10.2kWh per day, an average of 445W, which is less than 2A continuous on a 240VAC supply. The feeder cable has a 100A fuse in it and will support 100A as a continuous load (even though home finances will not!). The tariff is based upon kWh consumed only. There is no scope for PFC as the feeder cable is sized for the peak load and not the average load. Contrarily, on a distribution network where a cable is running near its maximum rating, it is very attractive to squeeze more out of the same cables by putting PFC at the users' ends, as feeder losses will be reduced across the network. Suppliers encourage this by penalising poor power factor as part of their user tariffs.
2. The safety of electrical equipment used in the home is the domain of the manufacturer, the supplier and the maintainer in national laws. The manufacturer and the supplier have duties to make sure that the equipment as supplied is safe and can be prosecuted if it causes injury or kills someone. However the maintainer also has a duty to keep it safe by making sure that it is in good order throughout its useful life. The manufacturer and supplier exclude this from their liability by referring to "fair wear and tear" in their product warranty.
3. Harmonics and EMI are only relevant with respect to the compatibility of equipment with other equipment. For example, if a neighbour's television causes interference to the radio next door, then it is neither a safety nor a power factor issue, though the television user can certainly be prosecuted for causing it in the UK. That is why EMI suppression and equipment compatibility tests are carried out, which has nothing to do with safety, PFC, marketing or much else.

Most domestic users couldn't give a damn, though. So is this advocated database-thingy really "much ado about nothing"?

Lights,air conditioners,computers,ceiling fans are used not only in homes but in offices too. In a large office, say with 50 a/c units,200 fluorescent lights,100 computers etc the overall pf will be low thereby increasing the kVA(MD) charges