professorpaul wrote:
This issue is power factor.(EE, long ago and far away). As one other
poster points out, it is only an issue with pretty large motors -- 10
HP or better. Stuff you have in your house isn't going to make a
difference. The power factor correction capacitors the power company
has takes care of the problem on their side, especially for large
industrial loads.

(Probably even longer ago and farther away) But can't a suitable capacitor
change the phase on a motor such that the reactive load is out of phase with
the resistive load thereby fooling a KWH meter into thinking the motor (say
on an AC unit) is all reactive and therefore not measured?