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Re: Power Factor Capacitor


----- Original Message -----
From: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Saturday, February 26, 2000 11:13 PM
Subject: Re: Power Factor Capacitor -- Was -- RE: schematics...Adam Smith's


> Original Poster: "Adam" <adamsmith-at-mediaone-dot-net>
>
> > Actually, I've been told that Aluminum Electrolytic will work for a
120VAC
> > PFC cap.  These are inexpensive and very common.  And to head off
criticism
> > that Aluminum electrolytic caps shouldn't be used in an AC circuit, I
was
> > told by an Electrical Engineer (Technician?) who runs all the electrical
> > labs here at school.  He said that electrolytics can take the AC, just
not a
> > constant negative DC bias.
> >
> > Mark
>
> Not for this application, NO WAY!  Fairly inexpensive "non-polar"
> electrolytics are used in AC circuits all the time, in speaker crossovers
> for example, and motor starting, but there are none that I know of that
> would be of any use for NST Power Factor Correction.  They just can't
handle
> the continuous currents that we're dealing with.
>
> You can go ahead and experiment, but be very sure that you are well
> protected from the blast of hot alkali that will inevitably spew from the
> capacitor!
>
> -Adam
> adamsmith-at-mediaone-dot-net
>
Hi all,
 I went out to my favorite electronic parts/junk shop to gather a few things
last night. I picked up two Mallory electrolitics for PFC thinking they
would work fine, and now I read all these posts saying they won't work. Each
cap is rated 15uf, 440VAC, 60cycle. They are about 6 inches tall and 2-3
inches oval. The case is galvanized steel. I paid $1 each, so no great loss
if I can't use them, but with these ratings, I don't see any reason why they
shouldn't work. I was planning to wire them in parrallel for 30 uf. The guy
also had many other similar caps with ratings for 50/60 Hz and I remerber
seeing three phase on some of them. Maybe these aren't electrolitics.
Later,
Jon

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