Craig_Karnitz
New member
Gentlemen Hi,
I have a problem I hope one or two of you can explain and help me
understand. A few weeks ago a local businessman here on our island
approached me to set up a demo- display for a new product he was
going to sell. (our utility company is charging us .34 cents per kwh now
and July 1st it will increase to .42 cents ?ouch? People here are looking
for miracles) He showed me a internet video of the display, and I said,
sure I could set one up. I wired it up as per supplied instructions, code,
and common practice. I supplied the capacitor unit from a dedicated 2
pole 20 amp breaker. I installed 2 ? Killawatt meters to view the reported
reduction in amperage and the improvement in power factor.
After powering the unit up I as unable to duplicate the savings seen in
the video. After trying to contact their technical help person for a week
and a half, I finally found another of their distributors that sent me their
?magic wiring diagram?
Basically the only difference from the circuit I drew up and theirs, is that
they wanted the display circuit to be fed from a single pole (120v) breaker.
L-1 on their unit to the breaker and L-2 to the neutral.
WELLA!
I can now see the reduced amperage 4.3 amps down to 1.5, and the
Improvement in power factor .23 prior to turning the motor on ? to .83
with it running????
It has been a long time since I had to work with this in class!
I?m just an ?older? electrician, but this is looking like smoke and mirrors to me?
Can one of you with an engineering background explain how the wiring change
of how the capacitor discharges into the circuit 240 to 120 is affecting this.
Is it legitimate use to change the circuit wiring to see these magical savings?
Thanks in advance for any help!
Craig
I have a problem I hope one or two of you can explain and help me
understand. A few weeks ago a local businessman here on our island
approached me to set up a demo- display for a new product he was
going to sell. (our utility company is charging us .34 cents per kwh now
and July 1st it will increase to .42 cents ?ouch? People here are looking
for miracles) He showed me a internet video of the display, and I said,
sure I could set one up. I wired it up as per supplied instructions, code,
and common practice. I supplied the capacitor unit from a dedicated 2
pole 20 amp breaker. I installed 2 ? Killawatt meters to view the reported
reduction in amperage and the improvement in power factor.
After powering the unit up I as unable to duplicate the savings seen in
the video. After trying to contact their technical help person for a week
and a half, I finally found another of their distributors that sent me their
?magic wiring diagram?
Basically the only difference from the circuit I drew up and theirs, is that
they wanted the display circuit to be fed from a single pole (120v) breaker.
L-1 on their unit to the breaker and L-2 to the neutral.
WELLA!
I can now see the reduced amperage 4.3 amps down to 1.5, and the
Improvement in power factor .23 prior to turning the motor on ? to .83
with it running????
It has been a long time since I had to work with this in class!
I?m just an ?older? electrician, but this is looking like smoke and mirrors to me?
Can one of you with an engineering background explain how the wiring change
of how the capacitor discharges into the circuit 240 to 120 is affecting this.
Is it legitimate use to change the circuit wiring to see these magical savings?
Thanks in advance for any help!
Craig