The basics what is power factor

Electricity is one of the largest overheads for many businesses, and with power prices soaring it’s time for companies to get smart about energy. Having a good Power Factor is imperative to keeping bills low – yet it’s often overlooked. This article explains everything you need to know about Power Factor and Power Factor Correction.

What is Power Factor?

Power Factor is a measure of apparent power (kVA) as a ratio of real power (kW) and is an indicator for how efficiently a work site uses supplied energy. Apparent power is the total of real power and reactive power. Real power refers to the electricity equipment actually consumes, while reactive power is usually a side-effect – electricity that’s drawn but has no real purpose.

What is power factor? In this video we learn all about power factor starting at the basics. We cover, what is power factor, what is good and bad power factor, how to fix bad power factor, what is leading power factor, what is lagging power factor, how capacitors, inductors and resistors affect circuits as well as how to calculate the power factor correction.