LABORATORY REPORT NO.

: 2
Power in AC circuits and Power Factor Correction
OBJECTIVES:
1. Conduct experiments on electrical measuring instruments and devices
2. Calculate the voltage, current, and the power factor of the circuit
3. Find the differences from the measured and calculated values

MATERIALS:
1. Circuit Simulator (NI multisim)
2. AC source (220-V, 60-Hz, 60°)
3. Resistor - 50 − Ω
4. Inductor – 500-mH
5. Capacitor
DISCUSSION & PROCEDURE:
Power in AC circuits
- A circuit element dissipates or produces power according to P = IV, where I is the current
through the element and V is the voltage across it. Since the current and the voltage both
depend on time in an ac circuit, the instantaneous power 𝑝𝑝(𝑡𝑡) = 𝑖𝑖(𝑡𝑡) ∗ 𝑣𝑣(𝑡𝑡) is also time
dependent. For a resistor, 𝑖𝑖(𝑡𝑡)𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 𝑣𝑣(𝑡𝑡) are in phase and therefore always have the same
sign. For a capacitor or inductor, the relative signs of 𝑖𝑖(𝑡𝑡)𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 𝑣𝑣(𝑡𝑡) vary over a cycle due to
their phase differences.
Instantaneous Power
1 1
p(t) = (𝑉𝑉𝑚𝑚 )(𝐼𝐼𝑚𝑚 ) cos(𝜙𝜙𝑣𝑣 − 𝜙𝜙𝑖𝑖 ) + (𝑉𝑉𝑚𝑚 )(𝐼𝐼𝑚𝑚 ) cos(𝜔𝜔𝜔𝜔 + 𝜙𝜙𝑣𝑣 + 𝜙𝜙𝑖𝑖 ) ; W (watts)
2 2

Average Power
1
Pave = (𝑉𝑉𝑚𝑚 )(𝐼𝐼𝑚𝑚 ) cos(𝜙𝜙𝑣𝑣 − 𝜙𝜙𝑖𝑖 ) ; W (watts)
2

Reactive Power
1
𝑄𝑄 = (𝑉𝑉𝑚𝑚 )(𝐼𝐼𝑚𝑚 ) sin(𝜙𝜙𝑣𝑣 − 𝜙𝜙𝑖𝑖 ) ; 𝑉𝑉𝐴𝐴𝑟𝑟 (𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣 − 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎)
2

Apparent Power
|𝑆𝑆| = |𝑉𝑉𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 | ∗ |𝐼𝐼𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 | ; VA (volt-ampere)

Complex Power
∗ )
𝑆𝑆 = (𝑉𝑉𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 )(𝐼𝐼𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 = 𝑃𝑃𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 ± 𝑗𝑗𝑗𝑗 ; VA (volt-ampere)

Power Factor Correction

- Power factor correction is a technique which uses capacitors to reduce the reactive
power component of an AC circuit in order to improve its efficiency and reduce current.
- For an AC circuit, the power dissipated in watts at any instant in time is equal to the
product of the volts and amperes at that exact same instant, this is because an AC
voltage and current is sinusoidal so changes continuously in both magnitude and direction
with time at a rate determined by the source frequency.

ELEN112L – ELECTRICAL CIRCUITS 2 LABORATORY EXPERIMENT NO. 2

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 Procedure
1) Create a circuit
2) Calculate the impedances, currents, and power to find needed capacitance of a capacitor
3) Input the components in the simulator
4) Compare the computed and measured values
5) Make a conclusion from the table
MEASUREMENTS & RESULTS:
Initial and Final Values (Computed)

ELEN112L – ELECTRICAL CIRCUITS 2 LABORATORY EXPERIMENT NO. 2

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 Initial Values (measured)

Final Values (measured)

ELEN112L – ELECTRICAL CIRCUITS 2 LABORATORY EXPERIMENT NO. 2

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 Comparison of Values gathered

computed measured differences

initial final initial final initial final
power factor 0.256458 0.88 0.25562 0.88599 0.000838 0.00599
current of 1.128-A 1.128-A 1.12-A 1.12-A 0.008 0.008-A
inductor
current of 0 933.88-mA 0 937-mA 0 3.12-mA
capacitor
average power 63.64-W 63.64-W 63.251-W 63.251-W 0.389-W 0.389-W

OBSERVATION & CONCLUSION:

I therefore conclude that understanding power factor correction and power in AC circuits is
important for us electrical practitioners because it gives us the idea of how to manipulate the
power factor just by adding a capacitor in the circuit.
I observed that there is a discrepancy between the measured and the computed values for this
circuit. And I think it is because of the decimal places and significant figures used in the
computation. Furthermore, I noticed that even though the resistor-inductor connection is
connected in parallel with the capacitor in the final value. The current flowing in the resistor-
inductor connection is the same from the initial value. The only thing that is different is their power
factor. Even the average power is still the same with each other.

ELEN112L – ELECTRICAL CIRCUITS 2 LABORATORY EXPERIMENT NO. 2

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