Can we use pf correction equipment in home.

Yes of course we can improve pf of our home. But read the following points.

1. Why do you want to improve it? Is it too low?

2. For this you need to measure it using pf meter. At homes the pf is usually not very low.

3. Are you paying your electricity bill on KWH? If so pf improvement will not cut down your electricity cost.

4. By this equipment you will only increase the cost on yourself.

Thus, practically pf improvement not required at home. But if the pf is low, then it seems the load is high.

Thank you Ashish for your valuable suggestions....You are right. We need not bother about pf correction in home. But I asked bcoz of my curiosity to know about the equipment used for it, how it is getting connected, whether it is using anywhere

Anyway thank you for the kind reply

Ok. If that is the case then you will require capacitor banks for this purpose.

1. What is the supply type at home. 1 phase or 3 phase.

2. What is the lowest pf observed normally.

3. To what extent you need to improve the pf.

4. Calculate the KVAR required to achieve the required pf. This will give you the bank capacity need to installed. But is involves various other equipments such as panel, APFC relay etc to switch on & off the banks.

5. These are connected across the supply.

Hope this solves your querry.

Power factor improving has a long term benefit for equipments you use.Let me explain this in a rough(theoretical though) way.
We all know Power P=VI*cos(phi)
cos(phi)=power factor.
AC power is defined in three types(I am trying to make it simple), Active, reactive and apparent power. They can be represented as the sides in a right angled triangle such that the hypotenuse represents apparent power(it is equal to VI), one side shows the active power and the other side shows the reactive power(its VI*sin(phi)). The angle between apparent and active power is the angle phi. Now, when we say power factor decreases, its cos(phi) which decreases. That means phi increases(since cos 90=0 and cos 0=1).
Try to imagine this, when the angle between the active side and apparent side increases, the length of the reactive side increases with it. So does the apparent side's length. So, we have an increase of VI here, the value of voltage and current is changing. The voltage decreases and the current increases(just believe that this is what happens most of the time). But the active remains the same. So, your energy-meter wont show any difference, since it depends only on active power. But you have more current flowing through your appliances, leading to more resistive losses(I^2R losses) and the insulators in your appliances wear out more. These are losses, but are not subject to much attention.
We correct power factor in large machines and appliances using induction like pump motors, fans, etc using a capacitor. For everything else, I believe we need not do it. But the more we use power in low power factor, more is the loss for the generating station. So, if you are patriotic, and you want to save the earth and go green, turn off all electrical appliances possible during peak time.


I am sorry I couldn't make it short for you to read it. Anyways, thanks for reading it.

good job...

We can surely save on electricity cost (billing) as well if our energy billing is on KVAH.

Nice point Sir..

Yes we can improve power factor at home, Power measured in Watts (W) and Volt-Ampd (VA) is often used interchangeability and it is often considered to the same. This is far from true in a practical scenario:Real Power (W) = Voltage (V) x Current (I) over time.Even though a PFC device may not reduce the electricity bill.