capacitor

[fire]

i know capacitors are mainly used for power factor correction, has anyone ever used them in domestic property??

 

[Marvo]

I've used capacitors in domestic premises for pool pumps, irrigation pumps etc. Never used PFC equipment in domestic though. It would be unusual for several reasons;

• There's not much domestic equipment that would cause poor power factor.
• The relatively low consumption of domestic premises means PFC equipment would take decades to pay itself off.
• Domestic consumers are not penalised in their billing for poor power factor so there's no motivation to correct it.

*The last point might not be true where you are living.*

 

[telectrix]

best use for a capacitor is to charge it to 300volts and place in apprentice's toolbox

 

[IQ Electrical]

I fail to see the point as domestic consumers in the UK are charged by KW/h so there would be no savings with a better power factor.

 

[mayfair]

******* but funny the old ones are the best

best use for a capacitor is to charge it to 300volts and place in apprentice's toolbox

 

[Guest123]

i know capacitors are mainly used for power factor correction, has anyone ever used them in domestic property??

You may find them in a fluorescent light fitting maybe, but I dont know of anyone that's installed them in a dedicated PFC capacity in a domestic situation.

 

[RexT]

Hi fire,
I seem to recall someone saying about using capacitors to correct some problems with lighting circuits and I beleive Maplin were selling some with this is mind.
Dont take this for gospel as I honestly cant recall all the details.
Capacitors crop up everywhere nowa days and most electronic equipement / power supplies etc have them.
As for fitting them I would agree with the comments above.
Hope this helps,
Best wishes
Rex

 

[telectrix]

a use i have found for the humble capacitor is if using a PIR to energise a relay or contactor. PIRs don't like inductive loads, so a cap. across the coil will fool the PIR into thinking it's resistive.

 

[Adam W]

In industrial situations the capacitors are banked centrally , while in domestic appliances the capacitor is located locally within the appliance, and is specifically matched to that appliance.
CFL lighting has a low power factor so the use of pfc capacitors may be beneficial, although as already mentioned the benefit would be negligible compared with the initial outlay.
There are companies selling plugin gadgets which claim to do something similar to pfc, but electrical engineers have taken them apart and concluded they're nothing more than a box of components with a couple of flashing lights.

 

[Golden_Boy]

I fail to see the point as domestic consumers in the UK are charged by KW/h so there would be no savings with a better power factor.

As a normal watt hour meter will only give ACCURATE readings when the load is PURELY resistive. Any deviation ( capacitive or inductive) will result in a LOWER reading on the meter. PFC is introduced in order to bring the power factor back to that of a resistive load.