Its capacitor based, so it levels out the draw, I can not see how it can do that much. Like others have said in the high amp draw like a 2 ton A/C unit I can see maybe. Hope I am wrong and I want one in a month???
Interesting, I have a heat pump, so I use a lot of “Motor power” both summer and winter. Also have two refrigerators, washing machine..can’t think of any other motors, i.e., inductive power factor. Sounds like this thing corrects the power factor toward more resistive like, i.e, voltage and current in phase. I don’t know how that affects the electric meter, that’s where you are being measured. I believe the power company likes to see a capacitive reactive load, to counter balance the inductive reactive load from motors that most customers have.
i have the following in the house --firdge,washer,dryer,freezer,garage door opener,blower for furnace,2-ceiling fans,floresent lights,hot tub,garbage disposal,hair dryer,cpap machine,blower in my tv--i know its there i can hear it--fans in computers, window air conditioner,electric pressure washer-cfl bulbs--now although these are not running all the time,,these are the things that they say you save on---i save at least 40.00 a month average for the year--
When this thread started a few weeks ago I sent the following note to three electrical engineers (friends and guys I’ve worked with over the years). I am always interested in finding a way to save energy and completely lacking the ability to decipher electrical issues.
My question to the was, “What do you think of this? Seems like someone running a lot of inductive devices could save a bundle if this is true; think it is? It seems that it just uses capacitors to effectively eliminate Power Factor losses; science or snake oil? Any chance it would be harmful to motors? http://www.power-save.com/1200.html”
The first response was, “Looks like fraud to me. Reminds me of an old J. C. Whitney catalog item called an electronic supercharger. It was actually just a funny looking distributor rotor. The catalog claimed that it turned normal “cold electricity” into “hot electricity”. This increased horsepower and gas mileage. The power companies distribute capacitance on their lines where needed to improve power factor. You do not actually get charged for reactive (inductive) power except where the reactive current might generate a small increase in wiring losses - probably not noticeable. The meter only measures real power not reactive or imaginary power. In theory, you should be able to hang a big inductive load on your meter and not see any speed change. If you put real power back onto the line, it should reverse direction and they should send you a check”.
The second response, “I agree that this is snakeoil sales. Reactive/imaginary power cannot perform useful work, but must be transmitted across the power distribution lines - increasing current and related losses for no purpose. Anything that minimizes this current saves the electric company money. One of my old textbooks says that the amount of iron and copper (i.e., cost) in a power transmission system is inversely proportional to power factor, so it behooves the power company to keep the power factor as high as possible. To that end, they use strategically-located capacitance to correct the power factor. Interestingly, the product spec mentions “Let Through Voltage” which is a made-up term as far as I can tell, and all kinds of irrelevant information, but not capacitance (directly) which is the salient information.
The third response was verbal, but in agreement with the other guys’ responses.
These are credible guys – I’d be VERY leery about believing the hype.
ok guys ---i just keep my imaginary 40.00 a month!!!---and the other guy here will keep his 10% a day reduction----and also remember how many people in the day said THE WORLD IS FLAT--and they were experts in the day....
Well so far I am seeing a 10% drop in my average usage, from an average of 44 to 38 kw/day.
Holy crap thats alot of juice! 38kwh/day is like 1100+kwh a month!! This is normal? I use upwards of 20kwh a day during peak season mid winter when the heat is running the most as are the fans, tv sets and the lights...this time of year I’m using up about 13kwh a day and wondering why its so darn high.
I’m glad yoiu’re getting a reduction in your usage, but wiht that kind of consumption I’m thinkint it would be really, really easy to cut another 10-20% easily. Any chance that the reduction you’ve seen is more due to you using your accessories in a more conservative manner?
I’m not trying to suggest that this product is either a miracle pill, nor the second coming. Just palying devil’s advocate and trying to eliminate other possible sources of power conservation.
I heat with electricity, a geothermal heat pump, and run well over 1000 KWH per month, so that’s not unusual for me. If I heated with wood (ha!!), my electric useage would drop to a little less than half that I suppose.
I to am an electrical engineer, but electronic/computer/management not power distribution, so I read with a vector algebra level of understanding of real and reactive/imaginary power...and that’s why I too question how the subject device can provide power savings...but I surely like the idea given my high power usage.
Nope, it was over 1,600 KWH in January and February, and down to 1,057 KWH $158.49 for March. A low reading for me seems to be just under 1000 KWH last November, must have been warm. So my average is around 1,200 KWH per month. This is without the use of wood or other supplemental heat, looks like the best I can do with my new insert that should be installed in the next couple of weeks, is trim off about 500 KWH during the real cold months, or about $75 per month at the current electric rates...that is not a lot given the cost of wood (money and/or work), but I do have some free wood and I do enjoy a cozy warm room due to heat coming form the fireplace insert. It’ll be a long time trying to pay of my several thousand $ investment in the new insert/installation.
Jerry am righ there with you we consume anywhere from 1000KWH in the spring and fall to as high as 1700KWH in the summer.
I am really looking forward to the summer to see what this thing will do against the A/C load. Granted it will take a year or two to pay the thing off, but a ROI of 2 years is acceptable.
My electric bill is 40-60 bucks a month, so I am thinking...300 bucks plus install and I can save 4-6 bucks...granted a high bill with the ac is over 100 but even so 3 months a year save 10. At that calculation that would take 30 months for just the unit… When you take into account the time value of money and the install it probably would be somewhere around a 10-12 year payback with my current yearly usage. This is not a smart move for me...some others it may make sense.
I’ll be keeping my $300 until someone can come up with something more scientific that their own house as an example. I am never going to believe that anyone consistently uses the same amount of electricity month to month and year to year.
BTW, the world was proven round by performing an experiment. This is called science. Someone come up with some science that supports these claims and I’ll buy one.
yes it was an experiment----but not everyone did it----don’t buy it,,,just keep paying while we experiment with it--we will keep you informed on how its working----pat
