Another Power Factor Scam?

[mull982]

Anybody ever heard of these guys?

http://www.totalenergyconcepts.com/

They are coming in to give us a pitch on their device that they claim will reduce energy costs by 15%. I am leary that this is another scam that simply has to do with power factor correction.

We do not pay a power factor penalty at our plant and therefore do not see how there would possibly be a 15% savings. The only thing we would reduce would be our losses, however this would be nowhere near 15%.

They claim that their device will reduce kW and current as seen by utility while keeping the current delivered to a motor the same.

I will remain very skeptical until they can prove me otherwise.

 

[ty]

Just another Snake Oil Box.

It probably does have some sort of surge arrestor built in, but it is probably not comparable to some better quality units.
So you are getting an over priced surge arrestor with a couple 60 or 80 microfarad capacitors in there.
I like their homepage talking about watts and kilowatts to lure you in, but then in their technical page, they talk about amps.

All of these companies try to convince you that if your amps are lower, you are using less electricity.

I also like what you get:

"Becoming TEC Certified GREEN gives you the following benefits:

GOING GREEN RECOGNITION

PRESS RELEASE IN THE LOCAL PAPER

DOOR STICKER

WALL PLAQUE"

Oooo a Door Sticker.

And it is a shame that they are selling this as 'Going Green'.
It has nothing to do with that or renewable energies.

Also, thier last step (#4, i believe) should be their first step. Changing incandescent bulbs to CFL will be where the energy reduction is. Not in their silly little box.

 

[480sparky]

Run, Forrest! Run!​

 

[gar]

100210-2139 EST

This is a tricky one.

If a customer has all incandescent lamps now, and changes to all CFLs, then their minimum percentage claim is maybe valid.

The water heater part makes no sense. Where did the heat in the house come from that is pumped into the water tank. In the summer it provides a little bit cooling.

Anything else is probably nonsense.

*********
Now to digress. At a recent energy conference I commented on the home power factor sales fraud problem. Afterwards a person came over to talk to me about a company he is considering representing. In this case wild claims are not being made and not related to homes but to commercial applications with large loads. To some extent what is claimed is based on power factor correction even when there is no power factor penalty. And some quick approximate, in my head, calculations seem to indicate a possibility. The power factor correction would be sized for their motor loads and located at the loads.

This outfit does a whole system analysis of a facility based on the individual loads, and then provides a guaranteed saving to be expected and in turn a pay back period.

Just considering the power factor correction on motor loads. If you assume the distribution wiring within the building after the meter is marginal, high voltage drop, then by correcting power factor at the load one might reduce the power dissipation in the wiring by a few percent. That saving has to be balanced against the capital cost of the power factor correction.

With non motor loads that produce very large peak pulse load currents, my oscilloscope, computer, etc, and an appropriate low pass filter at the input to such a device I may be able to considerably reduce the RMS current in the supply wire. My scope is 0.72, an older computer is 0.62, one slimline is 0.87. and another is 0.95..

Whether this outfit can produce viable economic returns I do not know, but it deserves some experimental analysis.

I expect to get more information from this person at another one of these meetings.

.

 

[AV ELECTRIC]

You can use the old adage im from Missouri the show me state we will let you install the product and if are electrical bill shows a savings we will pay you if not we will return the device back to you at no cost to us see what they say.

 

[mivey]

You can use the old adage im from Missouri the show me state we will let you install the product and if are electrical bill shows a savings we will pay you if not we will return the device back to you at no cost to us see what they say.

The electric bill alone is no proof their device did anything.

 

[Hameedulla-Ekhlas]

greeting all,

OPTIMIZATION: is very important topic of a power system analysis and design. We can do by ourselves too the same OPTIMIZATION to reduce the electrical bill by 15%.

applying Power factor correction for residential load will not affect too much to bill. because power factor for general load ( residential load ) is about 0.95.

we use power factor correction for the below purposes,


In an electric power system, a load with low power factor draws more current than a load with a high power factor for the same amount of useful power transferred. The higher currents increase the energy lost in the distribution system, and require larger wires and other equipment. Because of the costs of larger equipment and wasted energy, electrical utilities will usually charge a higher cost to industrial or commercial customers where there is a low power factor.


Power factor correction may be applied by an electrical power transmission utility to improve the stability and efficiency of the transmission network. Correction equipment may be installed by individual electrical customers to reduce the costs charged to them by their electricity supplier. A high power factor is generally desirable in a transmission system to reduce transmission losses and improve voltage regulation at the load.


An automatic power factor correction unit is used to improve power factor. A power factor correction unit usually consists of a number of capacitors that are switched by means of contactors. These contactors are controlled by a regulator that measures power factor in an electrical network. To be able to measure power factor, the regulator uses a current transformer to measure the current in one phase.