Energy saving device, con or real

John Starcher_4

...I got one of those too! Can't remember the name of the company, but found their website, and it mentioned NOTHING about the product in the flyer!!! As I recall, they mainly sold air purification devices?? For the life of me I can't remember their name.

Any-hoo, I did a Google search and found a whole mess of articles about dis-satisfaction with the company, how they allegedly ran "pyramid" schemes, and so on. I threw the flyer in the trash.

As I recall, it was a device to correct the home's power factor, and supposedly would save all kinds of money on the old electric bill. I'm not in a real comfort zone when talking about P.F., but I thought I remembered from a class many lifetimes ago that if the utility didn't bill you based on power factor, it would make absolutely no difference in your bill.

My $.02, anyway.

Starch

Wayco Wayne_2

I have recieved a couple of flyers

in the mail about a device that filters the electricity coming through your breaker box and refines the electricity so that inductive loads run more efficiently thus using less lelctricity. The first one I threw in the trash. The second one I am wondering. I'm not above trying something new out, but I don't want to be taken advantage of. Has anyone out there heard of such a thing? WW

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Roland_13

Hi Wayne,
Do you have a name or link for this device? There are devices called line voltage conditioners which use inductors and capacitors to smooth and filter the incoming A.C. I don't know that they can save you any substancial amount of money.
Roland.......

mark ransley

HD used to sell those and dont now because for the homeowner they realy do nothing. I dont know the technicals but it has to do with motors, power factor and its something the home owner wont benefit from, or everybody would have one.

Maine Doug_73

The huge

caps one sees on power poles are doing a similar job, correcting power factor. When voltage and current shift out of phase, the utility needs to supply more current for the power that you are being measured and billed for in watts. So they are interested in controlling power factor to reduce power losses in transmission and distribution lines.

In a home, power factor is usually not an issue. For large consumers with equipment that affects the power company, they can be billed higher rates for the extra current they use but is not properly measured in the watt meters. So this stuff advertised in the flyer would not be something I would buy since I am billed for watts. But power companies like this stuff.

Home Depot Employee

I think you mean this type

While the smaller units were sold locally and sometimes at fairs, there was never any substantial proof they worked.

Here is an example of a larger unit that can do multiple appliances/whole house. These will improve the efficiency of a motor but unless it is applied to a unit large enough to benefit, or multiple motors the ROI is not there.

http://www.watts4less.com/index.html

Today however, anything installed commercially typically has a VFD (variable speed drive), unless the MEP engineer or contractor was asleep at the wheel.

Myself, having 2 furnaces & ac along with 3 pool pumps and a compressor in my garage along with a dryer that never stops, I am beginning to think that for $400 investment I may benefit. Keep in mind, it is impossible to balance a residential 220v panel's circuits evenly as different lights and other loads are being used at different times. For that reason motors, especially 220v, never receive balanced feeds for which according to electrical engineers, the higher of the two voltages is wasted into heat, not productive energy. I am going to figure out how to measure my power factor easily or borrow a meter to do it which will strongly weigh in my decision.

Maine Doug_73

Unless the utility

is specifically charging you for power factor, I doubt you will see any improvements in efficiency that will affect the wattmeter measurements.

Tom Blackwell_2

There was a device patented by a guy named Nola, who was under contract with NASA in the early eighties. His device reduced the voltage to bring the power factor into line for lightly loaded motors, and was based on a Craftsman brand power tool motor. There have been quite a few devices on the market that are supposed to save energy. I had one on my refrigerator for a while and used a watt-hour meter to confirm it's claim-no savings at all. I believe the device was called a watt-saver. Since the utility charges residential customers based on watts only, with no penalty for poor power factor, the only savings would be the decreased current losses if the device actually did improve the power factor. Bottom line is there is no measurable savings. Even in large industrial power systems, correcting the power factor results in minimal energy savings, only monetary savings from the utility.