This article is about power in AC systems. For information on utility-supplied AC power, see Mains electricity.
The blinking of non-incandescent city lights is shown in this motion-blurred long exposure. The AC nature of the mains power is revealed by the dashed appearance of the traces of moving lights.
In an electric circuit, instantaneous power is the time rate of flow of energy past a given point of the circuit. In alternating current circuits, energy storage elements such as inductors and capacitors may result in periodic reversals of the direction of energy flow. Its SI unit is the watt.
The portion of instantaneous power that, averaged over a complete cycle of the AC waveform, results in net transfer of energy in one direction is known as instantaneous active power, and its time average is known as active power or real power.[1]: 3 The portion of instantaneous power that results in no net transfer of energy but instead oscillates between the source and load in each cycle due to stored energy, is known as instantaneous reactive power, and its amplitude is the absolute value of reactive power.[2][1]: 4
^ abIEEE Standard Definitions for the Measurement of Electric Power Quantities Under Sinusoidal, Nonsinusoidal, Balanced, or Unbalanced Conditions. IEEE. 2010. doi:10.1109/IEEESTD.2010.5439063. ISBN 978-0-7381-6058-0.
^Thomas, Roland E.; Rosa, Albert J.; Toussaint, Gregory J. (2016). The Analysis and Design of Linear Circuits (8 ed.). Wiley. pp. 812–813. ISBN 978-1-119-23538-5.
instantaneous reactive power, and its amplitude is the absolute value of reactive power.: 4 In a simple alternating current (AC) circuit consisting of...
board with its load. An external power supply, AC adapter or power brick, is a power supply located in the load's ACpower cord that plugs into a wall outlet;...
ACpower plugs and sockets connect devices to mains electricity to supply them with electrical power. A plug is the connector attached to an electrically-operated...
carried by modulation of an AC carrier signal. These currents typically alternate at higher frequencies than those used in power transmission. Electrical...
An AC adapter or AC/DC adapter (also called a wall charger, power adapter, power brick, or wall wart) is a type of external power supply, often enclosed...
A power inverter, inverter, or invertor is a power electronic device or circuitry that changes direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC). The resulting...
electric power requires high voltages. This reduces the losses produced by strong currents. Transmission lines use either alternating current (AC) or direct...
input and output power: AC to DC (rectifier) DC to AC (inverter) DC to DC (DC-to-DC converter) AC to AC (AC-to-AC converter) Power electronics started...
There are approximately 20 types in common use around the world, such as ACpower plugs and sockets, and many obsolete socket types which are still found...
power, grid power, domestic power, and wall power, or, in some parts of Canada, hydro, is a general-purpose alternating-current (AC) electric power supply...
electro-mechanical device for converting electrical energy. A power converter can convert alternating current (AC) into direct current (DC) and vice versa; change...
An AC motor is an electric motor driven by an alternating current (AC). The AC motor commonly consists of two basic parts, an outside stator having coils...
Look up AC, ac, or a/c in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. AC, A.C., A/C, or Ac often refers to: Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C Alternating...
engineering, the power factor of an ACpower system is defined as the ratio of the real power absorbed by the load to the apparent power flowing in the...
upon three-phase ACpower—the standard for large-scale power transmission and distribution across the modern world. Specialized power systems that do not...
Effective power may refer to: Active power or real power, a concept in ACpower A measurement of horsepower "effective power" (bug), a bug with the iPhone's...
electric power, and the electrical apparatus connected to such systems. Although much of the field is concerned with the problems of three-phase ACpower – the...
two-pin European sockets; see ACpower plugs and sockets § Compatibility. Delta-wye transformer Electrical wiring Electric power transmission Electrification...
Power Up Tour (stylised as PWR/UP Tour) is an upcoming concert tour by Australian rock band AC/DC, in support of their seventeenth studio album Power...
alternating-current (AC) electrical power that utilizes more than one AC phase, which refers to the phase offset value (in degrees) between AC in multiple conducting...
accepting AC input, rectifying to DC for passing through the rechargeable battery (or battery strings), then inverting back to 120 V/230 V AC for powering the...
can be powered by direct current (DC) sources, such as from batteries or rectifiers, or by alternating current (AC) sources, such as a power grid, inverters...
usable power to be transmitted. Alternating-current (AC) submarine cable systems for transmitting lower amounts of three-phase electric power can be constructed...
"onboard charger". At an AC charging station, ACpower from the grid is supplied to this onboard charger, which converts it into DC power to then recharge the...
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