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101
The Facts about Capacitors and Capacitive Electrical Filters...
BASIC QUESTIONS:
What are CAPACITORS? What are their MEASURES? How are they BUILT? What do they DO? How are they used in FILTERS?
They must be specifically designed and marked for DC use or for AC use:
For DC use, the polarity should be marked.
Reversing the polarity may damage the device.
Using a DC rated capacitor for large voltage AC use may damage the device.
If more AC current flows through the circuit, a greater voltage will be measured across Zin.
2.3 V. pk-pk
C=22 pf
Charging/discharging with DC
Capacitor discharged Capacitor charging, temporary current flow
Charging/discharging with DC
Charging through R1 Naturally discharging slowly through its own internal leakage resistance
2 3
C
Discharged Discharged
Four types of filtering action: Low pass High pass Band pass Band reject
No attenuation of the input frequency until a certain frequency point, then as the frequency through the filter increases, the input is attenuated more and more.
As the frequency through the filter increases, the input is attenuated less and less until a certain frequency point, then there is no attenuation of the input.
Within a certain range of frequencies, there is no attenuation of the input, below a certain frequency point and above a second frequency point, the input is attenuated.
Knee frequency 1
The input is attenuated within a certain frequency range, below a certain frequency point and above a second frequency point, the input is not attenuated.
Low frequency
Attenuated
High frequency
High frequency
A real filter
Knee frequency = 1 kHz
4 V. pk-pk.
INPUT WAVEFORM
Input Frequency
10 Hz
OUTPUT WAVEFORMS
Unattenuated
100 Hz
10,000 Hz
Very attenuated
Oscilloscope
Switch position
1
0.001 mfd
R e s u l t s
2
0.01 mfd
3
0.1 mfd
4
1.0 mfd
5
10.0 mfd
Impedance Capacitor 0.001 mfd 0.01 mfd 0.1 mfd 1.0 mfd 10.0 mfd in Ohms 15900 1590 159 15.9 1.59
A Capacitor Across Home Power Lines (Phase to Neutral) Acts like a Low Pass Filter For a low frequency (60 Hz) circuit that has some additional high frequency (noise) content, the filter will pass the low frequency and not the high ones.
60 Hz with high frequencies 60 Hz
Grounded
phase
neutral
I
Same voltage wave
20 mfd installed
The low pass filter action of the capacitor allows more current flow through the neutral.
0.2 v pk-pk
0.9 v pk-pk
0.8 v pk-pk
1.2 v pk-pk
What would it look like if I used a 10kHz high pass filter to view the voltage and current waveforms before and after the capacitor is installed?
The oscilloscope will not show the 60-Hz 120 Volt wave
The 10 kHz high pass filter reveals a lot about what this capacitor filter does.
No 20 mfd capacitor With 20 mfd capacitor
Small voltage spike
This DMM has a moderately low frequency response, so you cannot discern much other than an increased current with the capacitor installed.
The increased noise current with the capacitor installed has most of its frequency content below 10 kHz.
NEV changes
Fluke DMM NEV measurement
LAMP Capacitor Off Out Off In On Out On In Fluke 77 0.02 0.29 0.13 0.23 Fluke 87 0.007 0.28 0.19 0.25 Units Volts Volts Volts Volts
Code: Neutral and grounding conductors are bonded at the service entrance panel.
Without capacitors, noise voltage is only on the phase wire that you do not touch.
With capacitors installed, noise voltage is on the neutral/ground system which you do touch.
Picture of phase-to-neutral noise voltage using a 10 kHz high pass filter on the oscilloscope input.
Before capacitor is installed. After capacitor is installed.
Noise voltage can be seen on phase conductor Nominal amount of expected noise voltage, common to all electrical systems. Approx. 40 mV pk-pk with occasional spikes.
20 mfd
10kHz hi-pass
The 60-Hz wave is still noisy after the 20 mfd. filters are installed!!
20 mfd
The spikes are filtered, but the average noise voltage is not reduced. It is still approx. 40 mV pk-pk.
10kHz hi-pass
Analysis
1) 2) 3)
4)
The noise spikes appear to be random and are not a continuous waveform. Being random, they will have different durations of existence and various amplitudes whenever they occur. There is no way to determine a frequency because there is no continuous waveform, other than the 60-Hz wave the noise is riding on. RF Energy is a term that only applies to frequencies above 10 kHz and more usually above 100 kHz. RF means radio frequency which are the frequencies receivable by a radio.
Note that the voltage analysis below does not always jibe with the instrument data
96 mV difference
?
1/0.06ms = 16.6 kHz in this one area only
?
10kHz hi-pass
ditto
20 mfd
????
The best you can say is there occurred 3 noise spikes of about 100, 500 and 750 millivolts of about 60 microseconds duration that appear to be nonsynchronous with the power wave. Source is unknown but most likely from a near-by equipment switching event (on or off).
1 2 3
These three spikes appear on this waveform too, but are too small to see in comparison with the 340 V. pk-pk. of the 60-Hz wave. If you dont touch the 340 V. pk-pk wave, you will not contact the 750 mV, etc. spikes.
The filter obviously shunted some the spikes, if they recurred, to the neutral/ground circuit, leaving a continuous background noise level of about 40 millivolts peak (=28 mV rms). This level is imperceptible to humans as universal common electrical noise. No discernable frequency exists. The conclusion that spikes were solely from the utility is unsupported. There is no RF energy involved since there is no steady-state frequency above 10 kHz.
Select any two other adjacent wave peaks and the calculated frequency will be different. It is random, not fixed. On this horizontal scale, 10 kHz would occupy 1/20th division. 100 kHz would occupy 1/200th division. This is not RF voltage.
CONCLUSIONS
To say that the installed capacitors reduce noise voltage on the phase conductor is generally true, but.... It only reduced the spikes, if they recurred, not the commonly found background noise voltage. What is also true, but unstated, is that there is an increase in neutral conductor noise current and an increase in neutral conductor 60-Hz current as well as an increase in Neutral-to-Earth voltage (NEV) due to those currents.
Anyone can touch this NEV, but they do not usually touch the 120Volt rms phase voltage. Therefore, the conclusion that adding these capacitors will reduce a persons exposure to high frequency electricity is wrong. Capacitors enable a person to be exposed to more high frequency (and 60-Hz) electricity in the form of elevated touch potentials on all grounded objects.
CONCLUSIONS
CONCLUSIONS
Conclusion about RF energy being involved is wrong there is no RF energy involved in these graphs. There is only a normal amount of environmentally common noise that can be found at any and every similar measurement point at any time using this inappropriate measurement protocol.