On Thursday, October 30, 2014 7:58:06 PM UTC-4, Ned Simmons wrote:

I think your understanding is wrong. With power factor correction the current at idle will be less. Under load it will also be less, but the difference may be almost unmeasureable.

See the table on page 12 of this Miller manual:
http://www.millerwelds.com/om/o353u_mil.pdf

Idle current with PFC is over 10x the current without PFC.


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Ned Simmons

I do not understand the Miller chart. On my own welder , I added PFC capacitors which reduced the idle current. Did not measure the current while welding, but my understanding of transformers makes me think that while welding the imaginary current would stay the same , but the real current would be much bigger. So the effect of power factor correction would be negligible while welding.

I looked for information on other welders but did not find any.

Dan