8 May
2015
8 May
'15
4:30 a.m.
From: Jon Elson
Well, first, rotary converters draw a LOT of imaginary
power (in other
words, they have an awful power factor) and so the line current can
become MUCH higher than you would expect.
...
We tried to rig up a phase converter scheme to run the motor-generator
set on a 370/145 in a guy's house, and it did NOT go well. he only had
a 60 A 240 V service, and the imaginary current was over 60 A!
Had to Google 'imaginary power'... Not a lot of experience with high-power AC
stuff! :-) ('Imaginary power' is probably not the best term to use, because
there are actual currents involved; I like the 'reactive power' name better.)
The article I read said that in reactive load which is high in inductance
(which is, I assume, the source of the high reactive load in rotary
convertors - or am I confused - a common happening, I concede :-), judicious
application of capacitance can reduce the reactive load. Why isn't this used
with rotary convertors to reduce their reactive load?
Any idea what the active and reactive powers/currents were in that attempted
installation?
Noel