Tim Hutzler said the following to Mike Ross on the subject of
Re: SOLAR POWER IN APT? (08 Jan 98  11:23:00)
 MR>Just for the sake of discussion we're conveniently ignoring power
 MR>factor. Remember the power factor of solar arrays is really itsy
 MR>bitsy tiny?
 TH>What kind of solar arrays (for an apartment?) produce anything
 TH>other that DC?
 TH>What is the constructive informantion behind this thread? I see
 TH>that it dominates the article list, but the ones that iread have
 TH>nothing to do with "solar power in your apartment."
 MR>You're right. This being FIDO, I was attempting to explain it
 MR>"nicely" to Joe that there was no power factor in a solar array.
 TH> I was under the impression that DC has a 100-percent power factor.
 TH> Perhaps you can explain how PF is measured.
Power factor is the ratio of true power (P) to apparent power (S). With
DC your 100% value would be correct since in a certain sense P and S are
one and the same thing. However there exists no such thing as an
apparent power in a DC circuit. Thus the notion of power factor with DC
is meaningless. There really is no PF in DC and is therefore not 100%.
... Ice Storm '98 refugee.
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