How Power Factor Affects Energy Bill

That's a good link, and searching through that company's archives yielded some really good information available to their customers.

If only all power companies made it that easy to understand.

Thanks,

Let's hope the OP can understand it.

I hope that some day these scammers will stop sucking the public into their schemes.

Unfortunately, I came across a high profile incidence of this in my own state dealing with essentially the same thing but the oh so much more controversial side of it...

This incenses me beyond belief...

Interesting reading about Sam, maybe the entire electrified world should just cut their connection with the grid, but somehow I think more people will die younger without all the positive things that electricity does for us.

I was wondering why Microwave News was endorsing his work until I read about them and realized that they're hardly a trade publication, rather they advance the agenda that Sam promotes, so of course they speak highly of him.

Bottom line is I don't see people giving up their cellphones any time soon, and I doubt the general public will limiting their use of electricity either.

Smoking causes cancer

Cancer kills

go figure...

Actually there is a circumstance where improving power factor will have an effect on kW usage, and it doesn't depend upon the particular tariff, rather it is the type of metering that matters.

If a large industrial customer has primary metering then he pays for the losses in the transformer that feeds his installation. Since those losses are in the form of heat, they're kWhs that get added to his consumption (some utilities offer a discount to cover those losses, location matters). Since improving the PF will result in less current flowing through the windings, lower I²R copper losses will lead to lower bills.

Please note, I share JRaef's and others' views that almost every quick-fix, snake-oil salesmans' PF improvement device will do absolutely nothing for reducing anyone's bill. Only if the specific primary metering scenario spelled out above and professionally designed and installed equipment is in use will there be any appreciable savings.

Dear Mr. sudhanvamahamuni,

Power Factor is linked to KVA and the KVA is linked to MAXIMUM DEMAND and Billing is linked to MAXIMUM DEMAND in addition to Energy Quantity.

DHAYANANDHAN.S

I worked for a manufacturer who made large AC motors. The same question arose and I was tasked to find out if there was any sense in trying to improve the facilities power factor and peek demand. On our bill I was surprised we where not being billed for PF or peek demand.

I started with calling our utillity provider to determine the tariff structure. That turned a rock over and the utility came to check their meters. Turned out the peek demand meter was NF and they had not been metering PF. The utility provider fixed their metering and our bill almost doubled. (Sometimes you should let sleeping dogs lie).

Final solution was we used a large synchronous motor we had sitting on the test floor for PF correction, and the large AC motor load tests switched to the night shift. Loading a 5000 Hp motor for testing when the total power demand of the plant was about 1000Hp really spiked the demand and the billing which included time of day.

The utility now occassionally asked us to postpone testing, and they allowed us a significant bill reduction for the on demand off loading. (typically summer months during a heat wave).

So, if you are going after bill reductions, be sure of what you want to achieve, and what you have to significantly reduce the bill. Usually a percentage point on power factor does not justify the cost of hardware and maintenance.

Similar to your experience, I was once tasked with "fixing" our gas unit heaters in a new facility. We had moved in in July and come December, the worker began complaining of the cold, yet no matter what we did with the thermostats, there was no more heat. I quickly discovered that the pilot lights were no lit. After hours of attempting to light them, I decided there was a problem with the gas. I went out to the meter to see if it was tunred off, and discovered that the meter had never been installed! In our area, the gas and electric comes from the same company (PG&E, Pacific Gas and Electric) so I turned around to look at the electric meters only to discover there were no power meters installed either! When the contractors built the building, they had plugged jumper wires into the meter sockets and since nobody called PG&E, nobody ever removed them. The fact that we went from Jul;y to December with no utility bills was not noticed by the bean counters I guess. PG&E was NOT amused with this arrangement needless to say, so they "estimated" our usage for that period, it was a whopping bill.