"Leo Lichtman" wrote in message
...

"jim rozen" wrote: For residential meters which measure only the
in-phase component, they have no effect whatsoever.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The I^2R losses in the circuit are based on the vector sum of the in-phase
component and the quadrature component. If the power factor is not one,
this resultant current is larger, so the meter reading goes up
accordingly. The electric company is not going to let you heat your wires
for nothing.
Yes they are, unless you are a commercial customer paying for KVAR (KVA
reactive). They would like every customer to have a better power factor but
it's just not cost effective to meter the out of phase component in
residential and small commercial accounts.