Effects of Appliances to Voltage, Current, Power Factor and Harmonic Distortion

Abstract

Power utility always get blame if there are power interruption occurred in residential areas. Many of the residential customers are unaware, that is electrical appliance itself one of the reason that contribute to power quality problem. Effects of appliances also can harm other sensitive equipment as well as electrical distribution system. This paper studies the effects of the appliances to power quality. Appliances that are used in the study are personal computer, fluorescent light, iron, LCD monitor, motor & driver, television, hand drill, laptop and jig saw. Waveform of the phase voltage and current, power components, and distortion of voltage and current for all appliances have been recorded and analyzed using Reliable Power Meter. In this paper concepts of power factor and effects of harmonics are reviewed. Subsequently voltage and current waveform, voltage total harmonic distortion, current total harmonic distortion and power factor are analyzed and discussed