Re: control panel measurments

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Gerry Reynolds" <gerryreynolds-at-earthlink-dot-net> 

Luke,

You ask the greatest of questions.  A pure inductive load can not do any
work.  Of course short of super conductors, inductors will have some
resistance that will dissapate some heat (ie I^2R thingy).  For motors,
electrical energy is transformed into mechanical energy and results in real
work being done (torque * RPM). With this conversion, the electrical load
the motor presents to the line is not purely inductive and the power factor
is larger than zero.  If I remember right, the PF changes with the
mechanical load to reflect the real work being done.  PF is greatest at
rated mechanical load and smallest at no mechanical load.

Gerry R

 > Original poster: "Luke" <Bluu-at-cox-dot-net>
 >
 > Thanx for the input.
 > It rings a bell from my electronics school days but I seem to have lost
 > most of it.
 >
 > Out of curiosity if the load seen by the source were purely inductive
 > and the pf was zero can the inductive load do any work?  Like say it
 > were a motor or .............
 >
 > Seems that if the true power were zero then there would be no power to
 > be put to work.
 >
 > Thanx
 >
 > Luke Galyan
 > Bluu-at-cox-dot-net
 > http://members.cox-dot-net/bluu
 >