Meanwell 48v 350w PFC WTF ( 120v North American wiring )

[neptronix]

So, dudes.

Plugged in the kill-a-watt today.
I got my meanwell cranked up to ~7.5amps these days, and it is cranking out about 315 watts peak, and drawing about 370 watts from the wall.

So that's about 85% efficiency, which is pretty good.

OK, so i switch the kill-a-watt to PFC mode and get a 0.60 reading. That seems bad.
I switch the kill-a-watt to amp mode and i get 5 amps ...
That's 5 x 120v = 600 watts.. thus a 52.5% efficiency O_O

What the heck is going on here?

 

[BatteryMooch]

The PF is, IIRC, typically better at lighter loads (i.e., not near max rating for the PSU).
Try testing at 150W and 75W to see if the numbers make more sense?

 

[jdb]

RMS Current * RMS Voltage in an AC system gives you VA (total power), not Watts (active power). If the power factor is 0.6, then multiply VA by the PF to get Watts. At least in the US, the power company only bills you for Watt-hours, not VA-hours.

5*120*0.6 = 360, which is much closer to the reported 370W wall power.