Indices for comparative assessment of the harmonic effect of different home appliances

Most of the modern home appliances use power electronic circuits as a power supply to interface with the distribution grid. They have become a major source of harmonic distortions in power distribution systems. This article presents a study of the harmonic current characteristics of such appliance through a measurement-based comparative approach. Magnitude-related indices are introduced to compare the harmonic effects of the various appliances and to quantify their relative severity. Phase angle-related indices are introduced to study the diversity of the current harmonics phase angle among the devices and to understand its effect on harmonic cancellation. The proposed approach can be used to establish a database of harmonic characteristics for home appliances and other small, distributed harmonic-producing loads.