Over the years we have replaced just about every bulb in the house with a CFL. But here is the problem. Our electric bill is going up and not down. When I moved here 3 years ago we spent about $140-160. As of this summer we topped $210. Electric rates have raised of course but that doesn't explain why our physical electric usage is has gone from 800 to 1100+ kwh
I purchased a Reliance Controls THP103 AmWatt Generator Appliance Wattage/Amps Load Tester to see if it was something that was busted like the compressor on the fridge that always makes noise. Sears says no and my meter suggests no.
After testing ever in the house I decided to test the CFL's. Different brands, some generic some branded. Meter said that a incandescent bulb of 40w was using 39 and a 60w was using 59. But it also said that an 11w CFL was using 45w and all of the other CFL's had similar readings.
Is this normal?
Best Answer
Why your various meters don't do a good job measuring power being used by various devices is due to an AC Circuit phenomenon known as Power Factor.
Power Factor The ratio of real power to apparent power.
Real power is the work done, apparent power is the product of the current and voltage in the AC circuit.
Capacitive and inductive loads cause a phase change between the current and voltage.
Inductive loads cause current to lag voltage and capacitive loads cause current to lead voltage. Think of two sine waves, one representing current and the other representing voltage that get offset by up to 90 degrees depending on the type of load. This phase shift messes up the reading of the real power consumed by the circuit. And if the power meter does not measure power factor and correct for it, you basically have a good door stop.
If you have a lot of motors in a plant, you often have to add capacitors on the power line coming into the building so you don't mess the power grid up. It is done to reduce the phase difference between current and voltage.
So, if you're going to measure AC Power, the device must measure True Power (Watts), Apparent Power (VA), Power Factor (%PF) in addition to Voltage (RMS), Current (Amps) and Frequency (Hz). Once you have the True Power and Time, you can read kWH consumed.