How much Energy Does it Take to Operate Reactance (also known as Reactive Power)?

Answer ...
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It takes an indeterminate quantity of energy to operate reactance. It takes some energy, but the actual required amount may vary, or be irrelevant due to the parametric property of certain types of reactance.

But just because the quantity of reactance may not matter does not make it possible to do away with it altogether unless we make up the difference with an unlimited supply of energy (and money to pay for that energy) to operate a non-reactive, or semi-reactive, appliance.

If we make an analogy between energetic water flowing within a reactive medium such as through a conduit (pipe) representing current flowing through a conductor (possessing inductance), then either an infinite amount of time or an infinitely large pipe will single-handedly be capable of conducting an unlimited quantity of water through that pipe.

And, since time is regulated by the frequency of oscillations and also regulates the phase relations between voltage and current, time is another factor of reactance besindes capacitance and inductance. Thus, we have four factors to regulate the pumping of energy ''against'' a gradient of impedance &ndash; not by fighting that gradient, but &ndash; by effortlessly reversing current under certain conditions.

And, since the size of a pipe can be enlarged, its equivalency of inductance within a conductive medium may also be enlarged to any size desired, to accommodate any quantity of water which is carried within a pipe or any quantity of current within a conductor in any shortness of transit-time.

Think of a heat pump. It pumps water against a gradient of greater heat to increase that heat. Thus, it should (theoretically at least) get harder and harder to pump against an ever-increasing gradient of escalating heat, yes?

That's what happens if we ignore the power of reactance and focus all of our effort upon energetically pumping energy against a gradient, namely: against impedance.

But with the reversal of current, the opposite happens. It gets easier and easier to reactively pump energy against an ever-increasing voltage due to the constant acceleration of pumping action brought about by escalating reactances.

There are four reactances that we may manipulate to achieve these results. They are: mutual inductance, self-inductance, mutual capacitance and self-capacitance.

The mutual varieties of inductance and capacitance are an interesting pair of reactances, for they are inverses of each other. In other words, whenever mutual inductance is high, mutual capacitance is low. And, whenever mutual capacitance is high, mutual inductance is low.

If they appear at all (and they, usually, always do), then they always appear together at the same time. They are never capable of entirely excluding each other. It is impossible for a circuit to possess one without also possessing the other.

These two properties of mutual reactance trump the self-referral versions in that, for some uncanny reason, mutual reactance may escalate, or diminish, over time even though self-reactance cannot. Mutual reactances are, thus: parametric.

''Go, figure!''