On Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:28:50 -0600, Tony Hwang
wrote:

Zardo Zapp wrote:
"Existential wrote:

I just bought a killawatt. I'll fool around some in the next cupla days.
I'm curious as to how it handles power factors.
If it is just calc'ing amps x volts, it's not really reading true watts.

They do read true watts, and are fairly accurate. They also tell you
what the power factor is. So, all in all, pretty neat little gizmo.


Hi,
Then the motor is sick.
Not necessarily. Some type of motors still draw lot of current with
little or no load. What changes is the power factor. They aren't
using much power because the current isn't in phase with the voltage.
In other words, they look like a big inductor rather than a resistor.
The power company hates these types of loads because there are still
losses (heat) in their lines due to the high current going through
imperfect wires, but the customer isn't paying much due to their meter
not showing much real power being used.