Translations:Power factor/2/en

There are various alternating current (AC) load types, some of which require voltage and current at the same time (resistive loads) and others that require voltage and current at different times (inductive and capacitive). Power factor (PF) is a number between -1 and 1 that can be applied to AC loads to describe to what degree their voltage and current demand (phases) are in sync. A load with a power factor of 1 (top graph at right) will have voltage and current peak simultaneously each cycle. A load with a power factor of less than 1 (bottom graph at right) will have voltage and current peak at different times each cycle.