Trainer board on power factor corrector circuit with built-in variable Neil Adam Arevalo... [et. al]

Thesis Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering University of Rizal System-Morong. 2018

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Electrical engineering students face a lot of challenges taking up their course and one cause is the insufficiency of means to perform several hands-on and practical activities. Considering this, researching on an electrical equipment or system that can facilitate the learning of such students entails a lot of benefits, hence, the reason of this study. The researchers believe that a power factor corrector circuit with variable inductor and capacitor could contribute in training and familiarizing student to AC circuits. Numerous revolutionary discoveries from famous scientists and physicists in line with electricity led to the further advancement of electrical generation, regulation and metering. Power factor corrector is one helpful device that is still used for many industrial purposes up to this date. A power factor meter is a kind of electrodynamometer, which is constructed with two coils that are movable. This kind of meters calculate power factor by applying a certain method. The power given in watts is divided by the result arrived after multiplying current and measured voltage. Nowadays, digital power factor meter is gaining widespread popularity instead of the conventional power factor meter. This also comes in a wide variety. There is an extensive range of power factor meters available in the market. With most of the consumer electronics using power factor, a power factor meter has also become very important in the recent times. It becomes significant in measuring the power quality to make sure whether a system supports its loads in a reliable way. Furthermore, it helps in saving energy cost as electric utilities can charge penalties if the power factor is low or even on high demands. Therefore, monitoring equipment are very important. A power factor meter can also save energy costs. Poor power factor can lead to bodily damage of an instrument and will lead delay in production. Therefore, power monitoring is very crucial. A power factor meter is designed in such a way, that it gives precise readings and helps one to prevent any loss of power quality. This kind of meter is used commonly for industrial use and for consumer electronics. The idea was derived from the varying power factor of an AC electrical network hereby the low or high factors can be corrected through the value of electrical components such as capacitor and inductor. An inductive AC network mainly composed of luminaire ballast, inductive motors, power supply and others can produce a lagging power factor that heightens reactive inductive power. A capacitive AC network on the other hand is mainly composed of the capacitive electrical components such as capacitors, synchronous motor and others can produce a leading power factor that contributes a high reactive power and so the cost of electric bill. An inductive network can be corrected by installing a capacitor and capacitive network by installing an inductor in parallel with the load. As a conclusion, the proponents were able to meet the objective of the project in terms of functionality. This is deemed to be a useful device for all the intended users. Moreover, following the formula and applying the necessary procedures, the researchers achieved its desired performance. Also, all safety features were applied accordingly following a specific standard. For more improvement and learning, the following recommendations are hereby suggested: provide wider range of capacitor and inductor value in order to execute variety of correction that can be performed by the user and provide factory-made inductor for precise value of inductance.