for a 200 amp residential service 246 volts to corect my power factor for the whole pannel what size capacitor should i use

 

The power factor has to be measured and the correction calculated - http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_2/chpt_11/1.html

 

Probably none for a cost effective system.

 

Homes are not charged extra for having a poor power factor. Industry is charged extra so they connect a properly caluculated capacitor to each inductive load to improve the power factor.

Resistive loads like heaters and electric stoves have a perfect power factor.

(I am not allowed to say from where) sells an over-priced capacitor to "improve" the power factor in your home. Its value is just a guess so will probably be wrong but why bother since it won't change your electricity bill.

 

Your Watt/Hr meter reads true power so what's the point? Besides, the power factor is constantly changing with different loads, so no single value cap is going to fill the bill.

 

The following link contains an interesting analysis of PF correction in the home.

http://powerelectronics.com/power_management/motor_power_management/power-factor-correction-0507/

 

Besides, the power company assumes a typical power factor for homes when calculating your bill.

Correcting the power factor on individual appliances will imprve overall efficiency and is more "green" than ignoring power factor.

 

Turning off unneeded lights and cellphone chargers is a far more effective strategy.