Capacitor Power Triangle

The value of power factor is 1 for pure resistance and 0 for pure inductor capacitor.

Capacitor power triangle. Here the power triangle would look like a horizontal line because the opposite reactive power side would have zero length. A power factor of less than one indicates the voltage and current are not in phase reducing the average product of the two. This phantom power is called reactive power and it is measured in a unit called volt amps reactive var rather than watts. The vertical side represents reactive power and forms a right angle at the right hand end of the side representing real power.

Capacitor is connected in parallel with the load then the lagging reactive power of the load will be partly neutralized thus improving the power factor of the load. As apparent power is made up of two parts the resistive power which is the in phase power or real power in watts and the reactive power which is the out of phase power in volt amperes we can show the vector addition of these two power components in the form of a power triangle. Capacitor units should be capable of continuous operation up to 110 of rated terminal rms 5 voltage and a crest peak voltage not exceeding 2 x 2 of rated rms voltage including harmonics but excluding transients the capacitor should also be able to carry 135 of nominal current. 3 the angle ø between ab and ac in power triangle represents the angle by which current is lagging with voltage.

For the purely inductive circuit which means the circuit should not have the internal resistance hence the current lags the voltage by 90 deg. We know that reactive loads such as inductors and capacitors dissipate zero power yet the fact that they drop voltage and draw current gives the deceptive impression that they actually do dissipate power. P q s and θ. Apparent power s the product of rms voltage and rms current flowing into a circuit contains real power and reactive power.

Capacitors units should not give less than 100 and more than 115 of rated reactive power at rated. In electrical engineering the power factor of an ac electrical power system is defined as the ratio of the real power absorbed by the load to the apparent power flowing in the circuit and is a dimensionless number in the closed interval of 1 to 1. 4 active power p reactive power q and apparent power s are given as. In a power triangle the horizontal side represents real power.

Therefore the power factor is zero cos 90 0 because true power equals zero. If a device taking leading reactive power e g. This fact provides a key to the power factor improvement. The mathematical symbol for reactive.

Power triangle is the representation of a right angle triangle showing the relation between active power reactive power and apparent power. Power factor defines the phase angle between the current and voltage waveforms. Since equation 2 applies to either a series or a parallel circuit we can develop a power triangle from either an impedance diagram or an admittance diagram. A power triangle has four parts.