K8MHZ
Senior Member
- Occupation
- Electrician
Can anyone tell me why we are charged for watts instead of volt-amps?
Now, I'm not complaining, but I am the consumer, not the POCO.
With the proliferation of CFLs and all the discussion about the poor power factor it seems to me that the POCO is not getting paid for all of it's energy. Now, since they can charge what they want to stay in business, I foresee a rate hike to cover the VAR's not being charged for, yet used increasingly as time goes by.
The customer is going to pay no matter what. I think being charged for VA's would be beneficial to all. People are thinking they are saving a bunch of energy by using CFL's. They don't realize that there is more energy (pollution) needed to be generated than it would seem by only looking at watts. If we concentrated on reducing our VA's we would directly be reducing the energy being produced. Reducing our VAR's is also reducing energy being produced that does nothing in return.
Maybe I am missing out on something, but if I was the POCO I would charge for Volt Amp Hours, not Watt hours.
Now, I'm not complaining, but I am the consumer, not the POCO.
With the proliferation of CFLs and all the discussion about the poor power factor it seems to me that the POCO is not getting paid for all of it's energy. Now, since they can charge what they want to stay in business, I foresee a rate hike to cover the VAR's not being charged for, yet used increasingly as time goes by.
The customer is going to pay no matter what. I think being charged for VA's would be beneficial to all. People are thinking they are saving a bunch of energy by using CFL's. They don't realize that there is more energy (pollution) needed to be generated than it would seem by only looking at watts. If we concentrated on reducing our VA's we would directly be reducing the energy being produced. Reducing our VAR's is also reducing energy being produced that does nothing in return.
Maybe I am missing out on something, but if I was the POCO I would charge for Volt Amp Hours, not Watt hours.