How to Measure Power Factor

[rhpope]

How do you measure power factor and what do you measure it with. Is there some type of hand held meter that can be used to measure watts as I am told this is really what you are looking for and trying to reduce? What is the optimal location to measure it at, the load or somewhere near the distribution panel/PoCo meter?

Thanks,
Roger

 

[LionelHutz]

Almost any power meter will display power factor. They range from fairly cheap handheld devices to expensive meters/dataloggers to permanent panel mount devices.

If you're planning on measuring your incoming power you may want to consider permanently installing something like a Tyco 1530 series panel meter. They're fairly cheap and provide a lot of good data. Or else, you can get really fancy and install a meter such as a ION. Either way, you get a permanent meter to refer to at any time.

As for where to measure it, that depends on why you're measuring it. If it's to know what a certain piece of equipment is doing then you measure at the equipment feed. If it's to know what you whole system is doing then you measure at your main feeder.

 

[whycliffrussell]

Lots of instrumentation companies have meters that can do this and they will gladly let you contract them out to use their equipment to do this (for a price of course)...ie: Fluke has a power system analyzer meter that will measure pf, harmonics, and can log 14 days of data.