In the eternal efforts to survive the fact we don’t put solar everywhere and that electricicity is really expensive, the hackspace recently got some power monitors. These report the power onto the discord server every day and how much it cost.
It says “reactive” “apparent” and “total” power. I don’t know what these mean, though I can make a guess from my MRI-RF knowledge. Lets read about it and find out!
Okay so reactive loads such as inductors and capacitors dissipate zero power (huh!), but they look as though they do due to the fact they drop voltage and draw current. This apparent power dissipation is “reactive” power and is measured in Volts-Ampls-Reactive (VAR). Does this mean that these components just introduce a phase shift to the power?
True power is the power being used. That’s chill.
Apparent power is the combination of the above, and is the product of voltage and current without reference to phase angle. Measured in volt-amps.
True power is a function of dissipative elements, usually resistances. Reactive power is a function of a circuit’s reactance.
Apparent power depends on the total impedence. Use magnitudes of the values for all these things.
The three forms of power form a triangle. True power is the adjacant. Reactive power is the opposite and apparant angle is the hypotenuse. The angle between apparent and true power is the impedance phase angle.
Huh, so if I know the power values from the hackspace, I can work out the total impedance phase angle due to the reactive components? Cool!