Laboratory power quality study of air condition systems individually and simultaneously with compact fluorescent lamps (CFL)

Khuzestan is one of the warmest provinces of Iran in which the air condition systems, i.e. window coolers and split coolers, are used over than nine month in year by the consumers. The lighting consumption is the second category of dominated consumption in Khuzestan. In recent years the CFL1, known as nonlinear loads, are widely used by the consumers. Therefore, the study of power quality indices of this equipment is useful. In order to study the power quality of air condition systems, ten kinds of widely used window and split coolers in warm climate areas are considered in laboratory and the measured current harmonics of them are compared with the corresponding standard. Furthermore the power quality of different kinds of CFL in short term (ten minute) is measured and their current harmonics are compared with the corresponding standard of lighting equipment. Then the power quality indices of simultaneously using of CFL and air condition systems, both window and split coolers, are studied. The results show that the THDi 2 of air condition systems are low and its highest value is 26.4%. It should be mentioned that THDi of split coolers is more than window coolers. When the CFL are considered with the air condition systems, the amount of the current harmonic of this combination may violate the standard limit. In this respect, if the portion of CFL in combination with split coolers and window coolers reach to 9.7% and 15.6% respectively, the amount of the current harmonic violate the standard limit.