hai,
I am doing a project for improving the power factor for electrical appliances by padding capacitors.plz give me a method to find the phase difference between current and voltage and also how to find the value of capacitor used for padding.Also plz let me know how to check whether the power factor has improved of not.
thank you

 

It would be nice if the world was that simple, but it isn't.

 

As the man said, it's not simple. There is a means of determining power factor - http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_2/chpt_11/2.html

Read through the chapters to see how it may be done, and even how to correct it.

The hard part is that the "solution" may have to be done per appliance, and even that will vary depending on the load. One correcting capacitor might do for a refrigerator, as it is a constant power device. Washing machines are not, though, and present a range of power factors that are all load dependent.

 

I have one of the little power consumption measuring devices, it just plugs in line between the power cable and the wall socket.

That also has the option to read the power factor of the load.

I don't know if they all have that feature, but it's worth looking at whatever types are available where you live (or on ebay).