Is this a scam?

[gar]

120126-1222 EST

Iceman:

As soon as you see the words "power factor" in combination with residential and saving money, then you should see a RED FLAG.

In almost every instance the result will be a 0 kWh saving. And actually a negative financial return because of the cost of the device and installation.

To have any possibility of a saving, then there would need to be a long cable from the meter to the main panel. Also you have the problem that the PFC capacitor is always connected. If there are no inductive loads being compensated by the capacitor, then the capacitor is itself creating a bad power factor.

Also consider that there are two types of bad power factor, displacement and distortion. A distortion type bad power factor can not be corrected by a simple parallel capacitor.

.

 

[K8MHZ]

In the book, "Who's John Galt" was what people would say when the best of the engineering minds would come up with a solution to a problem. The masses would instead chose to follow what ever some committee or government entintity would propose. And of course it would end up being a failure.

In the end of the book as the last plane load of "people of the mind" takes off out of Metro NYC, the power grid fails

I guess that makes sense. At the time I owned and operated an automotive and marine electrical service shop. This was when computers were in their infancy and starting to show up in cars. Since much of the early days involved basically retrofitting old design engines with new design controls I spent much of my day cursing engineers. Now I know why John Galt's name came up so often. She used to try to get me to read the book Atlas Shrugged, but I wouldn't. It's like 1000 pages long.

I had no problem reading 1000 pages of 'The Underhood Systems Manual' that explained how car engines were aspirated and controlled. I just never got into reading fiction. I like to read, in 8th grade I maxed out our reading speed tester at 1200 wpm. I played with it long enough to figure out how it worked and that the questions would come from the first couple hundred words. I got so I could crank up the machine all the way and 'photograph' the first couple hundred words and concentrate on them while the machine was running out. My true max was 300 to 500 depending on the subject matter. I'm not that fast anymore, but when I was a kid I could practically read an entire paragraph in a single look. I never took speed reading classes. I just read everything (non fiction) I could get my hands on.

 

[Joethemechanic]

I guess that makes sense. At the time I owned and operated an automotive and marine electrical service shop. This was when computers were in their infancy and starting to show up in cars. Since much of the early days involved basically retrofitting old design engines with new design controls I spent much of my day cursing engineers. Now I know why John Galt's name came up so often. She used to try to get me to read the book Atlas Shrugged, but I wouldn't. It's like 1000 pages long.

I had no problem reading 1000 pages of 'The Underhood Systems Manual' that explained how car engines were aspirated and controlled. I just never got into reading fiction. I like to read, in 8th grade I maxed out our reading speed tester at 1200 wpm. I played with it long enough to figure out how it worked and that the questions would come from the first couple hundred words. I got so I could crank up the machine all the way and 'photograph' the first couple hundred words and concentrate on them while the machine was running out. My true max was 300 to 500 depending on the subject matter. I'm not that fast anymore, but when I was a kid I could practically read an entire paragraph in a single look. I never took speed reading classes. I just read everything (non fiction) I could get my hands on.

Yeah i peaked out all those reading tests too, I learned to read from my grandmother before I even started school so,,,,,,,,

But now I am way too distracted, not to mention, when I read for a long time (hours) my eyes start to hurt. I just can't pull those marathon reading sessions anymore.

 

[K8MHZ]

Yeah i peaked out all those reading tests too, I learned to read from my grandmother before I even started school so,,,,,,,,

That's freaky, same here, kind of. In fact, right here where I am setting. I inherited her house and now live in it. I stayed here on weekends. I remember her buying me books and flash cards. By the time I was in first grade I could read anything at a newspaper level. I attribute that to the 'head start' I had out here when I was little.