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Electrical & Electronics Engineering vocabulary · Voltage, Current and Power

Power factor

Meaning in electrical & electronics engineering, with examples

nounCommon term

In electrical & electronics engineering, power factor means: The ratio of real power (in watts) to apparent power (in volt-amperes) in an AC circuit, between 0 and 1. A low power factor means more current is needed for the same useful power.

In Turkish: güç faktörü, cos φ, güç katsayısı

How it is used

Used in industrial power and energy management. Motors and other inductive loads lower the power factor, so plants install capacitor banks for power factor correction (PFC). Engineers say the power factor is low, poor or close to unity.

Example sentences

  1. Our power factor dropped to 0.82 after the new compressors were installed.

  2. The capacitor bank keeps the power factor at around 0.98.

Common collocations

  • power factor correction
  • low power factor
  • unity power factor
  • improve the power factor
  • powerThe rate at which electrical energy is used or delivered. In a DC circuit it equals voltage multiplied by current, and it is measured in watts (W) or kilowatts (kW).
  • loadAny device or circuit that draws power from a source, such as a motor, a lamp or a heater. The word also means the amount of power or current being drawn.
  • capacitorA component that stores electrical energy in an electric field between two plates. It is used to smooth supply voltages, filter noise, block DC and set timing.
  • motorA machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical rotation. Most industrial machines use three-phase induction motors, while small devices often use DC or brushless motors.
  • three-phaseDescribing an AC system with three voltages of the same frequency, each shifted by 120 degrees from the others. It is used to transmit power and run large motors efficiently.

More terms: Voltage, Current and Power

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