A Step by Step Guide to Reduce Energy cost with Power Factor Correction
Introduction
The energy requirements and usage by established businesses and other chemical or electrical industries are enormous. It leads to extra power costing to the factory owners. The network providers ask these business owners for additional fees if their power usage increases from the daily estimated power supply.
So, if you want to decrease the overall utility bills you must manage the daily power consumption. Power factor correction is the standard method large firms adopt to save a lot of their power & maintenance-related expenditures. In this article, you can expect the step by step guide to reduce energy & how to minimize high electricity bills.
The Main Reason for high electricity bill
The following reasons that contribute to higher electricity bills in businesses –
- Ventilation Fans: The extraction fans or ventilators remove the air when you heat up or make your room cold.
- Ducted Air Conditioning: According to the research, the AC’s in business covers almost 50% of the high electricity bill.
- Refrigeration: Freezers, display fridges, and ice machines lead to high electricity bills.
- Electric Water Heaters: Whether hidden inside a roof cavity or any box, the water heaters are used by all the businesses and contribute to 30% of the electricity bill.
- Solar Panels: Inadequate knowledge about solar panels usage can lead to high electricity bills.
- Other Electric Heaters: The plug-ins & detachable electrical appliances also consume a significant part of the electricity bills.
- Lighting: The Over-spec installations, old technology & over-usage of lights bring high electricity bills.
- Water Pumps: Oversized Hot water reticulation pumps, irrigation pumps, and pool filter pumps increase the electricity bills.
- Estimated bills: You can expect high bills when the energy providers send the ‘correction bill’ after sending the ‘estimated bill for months.’
What are Power factor and power factor corrections?
Understanding the concept of power factor & power factor correction can help you get better insight while working with the system.
1. Power Factor: The PF-power factor is the ratio measure of a ‘Real Power’ and the ‘Apparent Power’ for an Air Conditioning System. The Real Power is the active power that’s compatible with the system loads. The Apparent Power is the total power that a system can use & you can measure it in a kVA. The power factor can be in the state of lagging or leading based upon the system load impedance. You can illustrate the power factor in the format of 0 to 1.
2. Power Factor Correction: The active harmonic filtering or the power factor correction strengthens the overall system’s power factor value.
Power Factor Coorection capacitors are mainly of two types –
- Passive Power Factor Correction: It’s best to use for a smaller power supply of less than 100W.
- Active Power Factor Correction: It’s promising to use for larger power supplies of more than 100W.
Note: The ideal scenarios will always have a power factor equivalent to unity or 1. Here, the total system supplied power is equal to the active consumed power. So, in this case, the loads are appropriately working with no power losses.
Power Factor Correction Benefits: Step by step guide to reduce energy cost
The PF correction provides long term advantages to the industries and large firms in the following ways-
1. Low Power Cost: With the immediate effect, the power factor improvement leads to fewer electricity costs. Doing this, you can save a lot on the money you are spending on the monthly electricity bills. It does so by decreasing the total power need & usage at the power network.
Overall, it curtails the system power losses and rectifies the voltage situations. Also, this way, you can stimulate the overall capacity of the electricity system.
2. Low Maintenance Cost: By installing the PF capacitors, you are performing the PF correction. In the long run, you shall notice that the expense you wasted earlier over the maintenance is reduced now with the pf correction.
It decreases plant downtime & enhances power quality. You can also save yourself from sudden power losses and high power bills or penalties. The power quality is improved by balancing the loads & electrical networks during the disturbances.
Types of power factor correction units: Step by step guide to reduce energy cost
Installation of the best-suited capacitors allows curtailing the power requirements at the primary destination courses. Achieving this is simple by using either of the two types of power factor correction units as mentioned below-
1. Individual Load Compensation: The high operational timing loads use the Individual Load Compensation. It includes transformers & motors. The total capital expenses decrease once the new installations take place, like power cables & tinier switchgear. Moreover, the overall power cost decreases by improving the specific areas of existing electrical pieces of equipment.
2. Centralized compensation: It considers the instantly switching capacitor banks to provide the PF correction & decrease the penalties due to the low power factor. So, You can give accurate PF correction by regulating the system capacitance naturally. This way, it solves the problem of over-voltage & over-capacitance.
Step by step guide to reduce energy cost
Adopting the power factor correction installation is always a good idea and the best solution to power losses, reduced system capabilities, and high penalties. However, here is the step by step guide to reducing energy cost;-
- The lighting you install should be energy efficient.
- Timely electrical equipment up-gradation.
- Install waste heat recovery systems.
- Evaluate & control the power consumption based on peak timings.
- Let the appliance rest by turning off its power when you are not using it.
- Take control of power leakages in compressed air systems.
Powermatrix is the leading power supply industry in India. The equipment provided by us is highly affordable & possesses high quality. Our consistent help to the industries facing high maintenance costs is commendable.
With the support of having a lesser power & sustenance cost, we provide you with a long-term product warranty. Our supply of power factor correction capacitors is going to increase your overall system productivity. Contact us today to get the best PFC support & step by step guide to reducing energy costs for your equipment.
The best solution for Power factor correction
The most effective industry-proven method to correct the power factor is installing the Power Factor Correction Capacitors to your systems. The PF correctors serve as the reactive current generators. They fix the power by extracting the reactive powers from the apparent power. To better understand these two kinds of powers, let me summarize them for you.
Reactive power is the power consumed along with active power. The PF correction capacitor works like a charm in providing system efficiency when the apparent current consumed is higher than the active current. How the capacitors work is by compensating for the non-operating power that’s consumed by the inductive loads. This entire installation procedure is effective and efficient in terms of system productivity & cost management for the long run. Contact Power Matrix Solutions Today.
