Home PF Correctin

[tonytonon]

I went to a local energy conservation fair last Saturday, and there was a guy there selling a power conditioning box for homeowners. It was basically a box of capacitors that maximizes power factor, compensating for the low power factor of electric motors. He claimed that this would reduce utility bills. I said he was wrong, because the home owner isn't charged by the power company for low power factor. Industry is, because the peak currents are large and the line resistance loss in the grid is significant. But the homeowner only pays for the part of the current that's in phase with the voltage. He insisted, claiming that he timed the rpm of his meter rotor and found that the meter turns slower when his bix is connected. I said maybe something in the house switched off when his box was attached. What do you guys think? Scam or not?

[bsh]

it is a scam

[mikeames]

Already discussed several times. consensus is SCAM/ snake oil...etc...

[charlie b]

Scam, big time, and for the exact reason you named. Do a word search on this forum, and you will see several similar discussions.

I would tend to reply, to the saleman's description of his own experiment, that if he can connect a device to a residential service, and if that device can, with all else remaining the same, cause the meter to turn noticeably more slowly, then that device probably contains some component that is illegally altering the way the meter operates.

[Besoeker]

I agree. It's a scam.

[weressl]

Originally Posted by tonytonon

I went to a local energy conservation fair last Saturday, and there was a guy there selling a power conditioning box for homeowners. It was basically a box of capacitors that maximizes power factor, compensating for the low power factor of electric motors. He claimed that this would reduce utility bills. I said he was wrong, because the home owner isn't charged by the power company for low power factor. Industry is, because the peak currents are large and the line resistance loss in the grid is significant. But the homeowner only pays for the part of the current that's in phase with the voltage. He insisted, claiming that he timed the rpm of his meter rotor and found that the meter turns slower when his bix is connected. I said maybe something in the house switched off when his box was attached. What do you guys think? Scam or not?

I have a bridge for sale. I picked it up at a similar 'home improvement seminar' where I picked up my device for my home electricity bill saving. It works great, but the POCO must be raising their prices. The bridge has a sign 'Brooklyn' on it if this helps..........

[Dennis Alwon]

Read what Mr. Electricity has to say- click here

Here is some of his comments

Here's why I don't think this saves any appreciable amount of electricity:

• A utility company employee writes:
  
  I work for a utility in Ontario and we have tested these devices in our shop, and these devices are a scam for residential billed customers. They do correct the power factor but since residential customers are only billed on kw.h they do nothing to reduce a customer bill. That is loads use watts, and residential customers are billed on watts, so it doesn't matter what the PF is. Our tests not only proved this but that these devices actually use a small amount energy, which ironically drives the customer bill up.
  PF only comes into play with larger commercial customers who are billed on Peak Demand. The theory is that customers use Watts and the utiltiy supplies VA, so for the same load (watts), the lower the PF the more the utility must supply in VA. To combat this the utility bills is the higher of Watts or 90%*VA, thus the customer is charged more for a low (bad) PF, thus they can reduce their demand charge by raising (or fixing) their PF. PF is lowered by inductive loads, thus adding capacitance raises it. These little expensive devices are just capacitors.
  I read the white papers on these devices, and they did not report anything that was untrue, but the advertising is very misleading. Some of the technical people at our work were fooled, until it was explained and our results revealed.
  Only for motors and transformers. The reduction isn't for every device in your home, only things with motors, transformers, and fluorescents which need reactive power.
• Modern appliances have power-correction built in. Ancient appliances were wasteful, but modern appliances (like fridges) already have this same kind of power-correction technology built-in. For those devices, there are no more savings to be had.
• People from two different utility companies wrote in to tell me that these devices don't work for home users. The person from Ameren in Illinois says, "Our residential meters don't measure reactive power. You can't save money by plugging in a reactive power correction device." And Greg from Canada writes, "I work for a utility in Ontario and we have tested these devices in our shop, and these devices are a scam for residential billed customers. They do correct the power factor but since residential customers are only billed on kw.h they do nothing to reduce a customer bill." See his more complete comments at right.
• I've never measured any savings when testing an actual unit. No manufacturer has ever sent me a unit to test (could it be they know the product would fail?), and the ones I purchased myself or which were sent to me by readers failed to save any energy.

[tonytonon]

Originally Posted by Dennis Alwon

Read what Mr. Electricity has to say- click here

Here is some of his comments

Thanks guys and sorry for the repeat, I will search next time.
Dennis, thanks for the link!

[celtic]

Originally Posted by tonytonon

He insisted, claiming that he timed the rpm of his meter rotor and found that the meter turns slower when his bix is connected.

I'm sold.

BTW, just how long did he stand there counting the revolutions of meter?

[broadgage]

Similar scams have been tried here in the UK.
Residential customers here are billed for KWH just as in the USA and no financial saving is possible by improving the power factor.

Large industrial users who pay a maximum demand charge based on peak KVA, not peak KW may achieve a saving, though large installations are often equiped with power factor correction already.