College of Engineering - EEE Department

EEC201L
CIRCUITS 2 (LAB)

SCORE

EXERCISE

#6
MEASUREMENT OF A POWER FACTOR
Name of Student (LN, FN MI): Name of Instructor:
TENORIO, ALBIEN A. ENGR. RAYMOND R. RAGUINDIN

Date Performed: Date Submitted:

01/18/2016 01/25/2016
EXPERIMENT # 6: MEASUREMENT OF A POWER FACTOR
QUESTIONS ANSWERS

IPK-PK= Irms =
4. Adjust the frequency of the generator for
a circuit current of 6mA. Change your peak IPK-PK = Irms = 2.12 mA
to peak value to an rms value
IPK-PK = 1.6mA

VR2 = 0.91 V
P = (IR2ms)(VR2ms)
5. Measure the voltage drop across R2.
VR2ms = (VR2)(0.707)
Calculate the real power in R2
VR2ms = (0.91)(0.707)
VR2ms = 0.64 V
P = (2.12mA)(0.64V)
P = 1.36mA

VC1 = 3.43V
QC1 = (Irms)(VC1rms)
6. Measure the voltage drop across C1.
VC1rms = (VC1)(0.707)
Calculate and record, in vars, the reactive
power in capacitor C1. VC1rms = (3.43)(0.707)
VC1rms = 2.43 V
QC1 = (2.12mA)(2.43)
QC1 = 5.14 mVARS

VL1 = 1.097V
QL1 = (Irms)(VL1rms)
7. Measure the voltage drop across L1 (VL1). VL1rms = (VL1)(0.707)
Calculate and record, in vars, the reactive
VL1rms = (1.097)(0.707)
power in inductor L1.
VL1rms = 0.78V
QL1 = (2.12mA)(2.43)
QL1 = 1.64 mVARS

PQ = (+QL1) + (-QC1)
8. Calculate the total reactive power (Q) PQ = (1.64mVars) + (-5.14mVars)
PQ = -3.5mW
 S= (VGENrms)(Irms)
VGEN = 15V

VGENrms =
9. Calculate the apparent power (S)

VGENrms =

VGENrms = 5.30V
S = (5.30V)(2.12mA)
S = 11.24mVA

10. Calculate the power factor. pf =

pf =

pf = 0.12

12. Calculate and record the power factor pf = 0.119

(pf).

EEC201L EXERCISE # 1 Page 3 of 6

SETUP PICTURES

Wiring diagram with the AC fundamentals circuit board in the

RLC/RESONANCE/POWER BLOCK

20 KHz sine wave Function Generator

DATA ANALYSIS

In this experiment, the measurement of a power factor can be determined by using

standard electronic formulas of AC circuits. In this type of circuit, the real power can
never be higher than the apparent power. Hence, the power factor cannot be greater than
1. The relationship between the real power, apparent power and real power can be
illustrated by the power triangle. The base of the triangle represents by the real power that
is measured in watts. The height of the triangle is represented by the power measured in
VA. The hypotenuse of the triangle is represented by the power factor. This concludes that
the cosine of the angle is equal to the ratio of real power to apparent power, therefore we
will have the formula: pf = cos θ. A power factor is leading if the capacitive reactance is
greater than the capacitive reactance, then the power factor is said to be lagging. We can
get the real power by multiplying the power factor by the apparent power therefore we
have the formula: P = S cos θ.

CONCLUSION

The data retrieved from the measuring device calculates the above mentioned
quantities. By analyzing these data, some important facts are highlighted, such as the
power factor calculated by the distribution company was less than the actual power factor.
This means that the distribution company measuring devices are not working efficiently
and they need to be replaced. Power factor can be an important aspect to consider in an
AC circuit, because any power factor less than 1 means that the circuit’s wiring has to
carry more current than what would be necessary with zero reactance in the circuit to
deliver the same amount of (true) power to the resistive load. The poor power factor makes
for an inefficient power delivery system.

Poor power factor can be corrected, paradoxically, by adding another load to the
circuit drawing an equal and opposite amount of reactive power, to cancel out the effects of
the load’s inductive reactance. Inductive reactance can only be canceled by capacitive
reactance, so we have to add a capacitor in parallel to our example circuit as the additional
load. The effect of these two opposing reactances in parallel is to bring the circuit’s total
impedance equal to its total resistance (to make the impedance phase angle equal, or at
least closer, to zero).

EEC201L EXERCISE # 1 Page 5 of 6

Appendix