# Capacitors -get your facts right **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [March 18, 2009, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capacitors-get-your-facts-right/489927 "2009-03-18T18:57:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capacitors-get-your-facts-right/489927/21 "2009-03-22T18:05:52Z")
> [@ZenBeam](#): > > I think the point is that it doesn’t matter what the meter is reading or how it works, if the meter spins more slowly, you’re being charged less. And MY point is, if your meter is reading kWH, it’s not going to spin any differently with or without the caps. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capacitors-get-your-facts-right/489927/22 "2009-03-22T18:47:44Z")
> [@Q.E.D](#): > > And MY point is, if your meter is reading kWH, it’s not going to spin any differently with or without the caps. You appeared to have missed **JohnSawyer** ’spoint ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capacitors-get-your-facts-right/489927/23 "2009-03-22T18:47:57Z")
> [@Q.E.D](#): > > And MY point is, if your meter is reading kWH, it’s not going to spin any differently with or without the caps. Which, if you would pay attention, is what everyone is saying. That is, the spin rate will differentiate which is being done: charging by kWH or by some other method. In short, a differential diagnosis. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capacitors-get-your-facts-right/489927/24 "2009-03-22T18:51:02Z")
Uh, yeah. Hi. I already made that point back in post #17. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capacitors-get-your-facts-right/489927/25 "2009-03-22T19:04:30Z")
I think our point is that your post in #17 appeared to somehow assert that something John Sawyer was saying didn’t make sense. But we are saying that what you said was exactly what John Sawyer was saying, in essence. In other words, you differentiated his post when in fact, you were simply making the exact same point he was. ---
**Author:** ![HongKongFooey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c4cdca/32.png) [@HongKongFooey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HongKongFooey)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capacitors-get-your-facts-right/489927/26 "2009-03-22T19:10:52Z")
> [@Q.E.D](#): > > This would work if your meter read kVAH or kVARH, but for most residential buildings, it doesn’t. This is a bit off-topic but does anyone know if the newer electronic meters are capable of measuring apparent or reactive power? I’ve heard that they are but it’s third-hand information at best. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capacitors-get-your-facts-right/489927/27 "2009-03-22T19:12:06Z")
Well, it isn’t really a sensible idea 1) because as I’ve said a dozen times, residential power meters almost never measure anything other than kWH, 2) because these caps are not cheap, 3) you can simply look at your power meter and it will tell you what it measures without spending a dime and 4) if all else fails, you can call your power utility and ask them. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capacitors-get-your-facts-right/489927/28 "2009-03-22T19:17:39Z")
> [@HongKongFooey](#): > > This is a bit off-topic but does anyone know if the newer electronic meters are capable of measuring apparent or reactive power? I’m certain they _can_, but I have no idea if they actually do have the capability. My company makes its own monitoring systems for the equipment we make and they can be enabled to measure both both true and apparent power, as well as a number of other factors, including THD%. But, the capability is all in the software. The core hardware is nothing more than 10-bit ADCs lines connected to voltage sources and CTs and a PIC-series microcontroller as the brain. ---
**Author:** ![UncleFred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f0a364/32.png) [@UncleFred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleFred)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capacitors-get-your-facts-right/489927/29 "2009-03-25T01:46:03Z")
> [@nicola\_tesla](#): > > Of course the electric company really could care less since the more power you waste, the more money you pay. And the more power plants that are built, the richer they get. Electric utilities want you to use as much power as possible. No, this is incorrect. The tructh is that the electric grid is overtaxed now, and any across-the-board increase in usage is more pain then gain to the utilities. Increasing the generating capacity is an incredibly painful and difficult process for them, which has years of payback time. So the peak usage keeps creeping up on the existing grid, they have to use more high-cost generators to cover it, and with residential ‘flat’ rates they can’t pass that extra cost on to the customers. Watch in the summer all the ads about conserving electricity. Our local utility gives away energy-saving bulbs for free! Keeping the load curve low and flat is what’s in the electric company’s interest. I have worked with major electric utilities (Duke, FPL, WEPCO, more) as well as a lot of rural co-ops; increasing residential KWH usage is not the way for them to go. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capacitors-get-your-facts-right/489927/30 "2009-03-25T01:56:52Z")
> [@UncleFred](#): > > Watch in the summer all the ads about conserving electricity. Our local utility gives away energy-saving bulbs for free! Keeping the load curve low and flat is what’s in the electric company’s interest. Hell, if that’s not convincing enough, just watch California in the summer. During peak demand times in the summer, power utilities there will deliberately shut off parts of the grid for a time before turning them back on again, one after another. They call them rolling blackouts and it’s the only way they’ve come up with to stretch their already-overburdened generating capacity. If it were easy and profitable to build more capacity, they’d be doing it there for damn sure. ---
**Author:** ![SeanArenas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeanArenas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeanArenas)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capacitors-get-your-facts-right/489927/31 "2009-03-25T02:06:39Z")
In addition to what UncleFred mentioned, the easy-to-provide energy tends to be better for the environment. Generating the extra energy tends to come from less clean sources. So when peak loads are lower, the amount of pollution generated is less, and the amount of pollution generated per kw is less. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capacitors-get-your-facts-right/489927.md?page=1)