Re: Basic AC wattage question: am I doing my math right?

On Dec 28, 11:54 pm, John Larkin
<jjlar...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Fri, 28 Dec 2007 14:01:20 -0800 (PST), HC <hboo...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
On Dec 28, 3:48 pm, "Phil Allison" <philalli...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"HC"

I have a device that runs on 120v AC.

** Everything depends on what that "device" is - you fool.

Pathetic of you to hide what it is.

....... Phil

Wow, so you're this group's neighborhood troll. Nice to meet you.
Hey, when you grow up your dicky might get bigger than it is now. Be
patient. In the meantime, find another way to compensate for it.

--HC

Phil has a problem; always has, always will.

Your math is right for a simple (ie, resistive) load, but might be off
by, say, 2:1 in either direction, depending on the actual load
waveform and/or power factor.

John

Hey, John, the more I've been reading the more I think my math and
measurements have been badly wrong because they're rooted in DC
methodology which seems to be quite different from the AC world (or
can be for equipment/circuits that are not 100% resistive). So, as
you say, I could be quite wrong by just simply not knowing the
intricacies of AC power flow. I found a formula for calculating AC
current consumption on single-phase which is P = V x I x cosine Theta
which is great except that Theta is the "power factor angle" of the
equipment which I don't currently know. I approached this problem
thinking like I do about DC and I've found that it is wrong and the
problem is considerably more complex. I'm going to do a lot more
reading about this and "reboot" my whole test.

Thank you for your reply.

--HC
.