Skip to content
Steinmetz Decoded

Wattless Component

Term

Section titled “Term”

Wattless component

Modern Equivalent

Section titled “Modern Equivalent”

Reactive component, quadrature component, or non-real-power component, depending on context.

Steinmetz Usage

Section titled “Steinmetz Usage”

The OCR candidate in the admittance chapter uses wattless language when distinguishing the in-phase power component from the quadrature reactive component.

Conceptual Meaning

Section titled “Conceptual Meaning”

A wattless component is not useless. It is “wattless” because it does not represent net real power consumption over a cycle. It can still correspond to large currents, field energy exchange, voltage stress, and apparatus rating demands.

Section titled “Related Concepts”
  • Reactance
  • Susceptance
  • Power factor
  • Admittance
  • Field energy storage