Half wave rectifiers are not the way to go. They have been all but abandoned in the electronic world because of the issues you have found. Full wave bridges eliminate the DC component from the mix and should be used.
This does not suggest that accurate power measurements can not be obtained from the AC waveforms. This can be done and is the reason for much of the discussion taking place. Dave -----Original Message----- From: Alain Sepeda <[email protected]> To: vortex-l <[email protected]> Sent: Mon, May 27, 2013 2:19 pm Subject: [Vo]:Re: [Vo]:Re: [Vo]:Re: [Vo]:Re: [Vo]:Re: [Vo]:Torbjörn Hartman describes power measurments http://www.circuitstoday.com/half-wave-rectifiers (ii)Disadvantages:1. The output current in the load contains, in addition to dc component, ac components of basic frequency equal to that of the input voltage frequency. Ripple factor is high and an elaborate filtering is, therefore, required to give steady dc output. (iii)2.The power output and, therefore, rectification efficiency is quite low. This is due to the fact that power is delivered only half the time. (iv)3.Transformer utilization factor is low. (v)4.DC saturation of transformer core resulting in magnetizing current and hysteresis losses and generation of harmonics. transformer are not perfect and saturation solve the DC component problem. 2013/5/27 David Roberson <[email protected]> The concept mentioned below by Duncan is not correct. The DC current that flows into the resistor from the wall socket finds a short circuit to ground in the power transformer center tap in most cases.
