Se define Power Factor a circuit AC, as the ratio between the active power, P, y la Apparent power, S, or also as the cosine of the angle between the phases of the intensity and Voltage, in this case being designated as cosj, where f is the value of the angle.
The value of f.d.p. is determined by the type of loads connected in a facility. According to its definition, can only take values between 0 and 1. In a pure resistive circuit through which a AC, the current and voltage are in phase (J=0), therefore being Power Factor 1. On the other hand, in a pure reactive circuit, the current and voltage are in quadrature (J=90º) being 0 the value of f.d.p.
In practice the circuits can not be purely resistive or reactive, observed lags, bad the least significant, between the waveforms of the current and Voltage. So, si el f.d.p. is close to unity, tell yourself it's a highly resistive circuit so its pdf. is high, while if it is close to zero which is highly reactive and FDP. is low. When the circuit is inductive character, most common case, will discuss a f.d.p. lagging, while they say in advance when it is capacitive character.
cos j
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