power factor correction energy saving device

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Riograndeelectric

Senior Member
positing from February phoenix AZ Craig's list ad.


"I need electricians to sell our energy savings products. We are number one in our field.---See our WEB SITE---www.kvarretailaccounts.com---you will be calling on businesses and companies that sell to other businesses and the home owner. This product can be sold to every business and home owner in Arizona. Please e-mail me your phone number for a in..".
more snake oil in my opinion.
 

zog

Senior Member
Location
Charlotte, NC
positing from February phoenix AZ Craig's list ad.


"I need electricians to sell our energy savings products. We are number one in our field.---See our WEB SITE---www.kvarretailaccounts.com---you will be calling on businesses and companies that sell to other businesses and the home owner. This product can be sold to every business and home owner in Arizona. Please e-mail me your phone number for a in..".
more snake oil in my opinion.

Pure snake oil, if these really worked don't you think GE would be making them and Obama would require every household in America to have one? Or would they be made by some small company advertising on Craigslist.

Here is the proof they are scams, 1st post.

http://forums.mikeholt.com/showthread.php?t=124559&highlight=power+factor+correction
 

satcom

Senior Member

Riograndeelectric

Senior Member
local ces here has it for sale . The demo model looked like a kid wired it.
the demo had 2 wire lamp cord used Thur out on the demo and no ground of any type on the cord plug in.

for give me for not understanding but what does the patent do for the unit does this not verify that it doe s save power and does the UL listing not do the same thing?
 

zog

Senior Member
Location
Charlotte, NC
local ces here has it for sale . The demo model looked like a kid wired it.
the demo had 2 wire lamp cord used Thur out on the demo and no ground of any type on the cord plug in.

for give me for not understanding but what does the patent do for the unit does this not verify that it doe s save power and does the UL listing not do the same thing?

Those are just design issues, not saying it works. Don't get me wrong PF correction devices do save energy, they will minimize the line losses the utility sees, which may be enough to offset the energy the device itself uses, but they do nothing for the homewoner.
 

Riograndeelectric

Senior Member
Those are just design issues, not saying it works. Don't get me wrong PF correction devices do save energy, they will minimize the line losses the utility sees, which may be enough to offset the energy the device itself uses, but they do nothing for the homewoner.


hvae you seen any these in person or witness the power savings the device generates
 

satcom

Senior Member
hvae you seen any these in person or witness the power savings the device generates

We worked with a power engineering group removing these great energy savers from a number of fortune 500 companies that were sold the snake oil, ask them how it works when the company utility contracts are demand metered.
 

gar

Senior Member
Location
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Occupation
EE
100529-1445 EST

Riograndeelectric:

You are listed as a Master Electrician and that means you have considerable experience. So the following should be easy.

There is a very inexpensive instrument that is moderately accurate that measures voltage over a limited range from about 95 to 135 V. All of the measurements that this instrument can make are dependent upon the voltage being within this approximate range because there is no other source of power for the instrument.

It can measure voltage, current, VA, power, PF, frequency, KWH, hours. The basic "KILL_A_WATT" device can be had for about $25. The same thing but with EZ added to the name has been available in Costco stores for less than $30. On line search shows neither model at Costco.

The EZ is less easy to use, but has the advantage if you want to run experiments on long cycle time things, like refrigerators, then your cumulative KWH are not lost on momentary power loss.

Buy one of these. Take it to where the demonstration is. Put it in Watt mode and have the demonstration run with this monitoring power. You do not need to use the KWH mode to prove that the PF device (capacitor) is a fraud used in a home as advertized

.
 

gar

Senior Member
Location
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Occupation
EE
100529-1807 EST

Rio:

The ideal way to do power factor correction is to put the capacitor with the load to be corrected. This statement implies that the capacitor becomes part of that inductive load device and gets switched on and off with the load.

Assume you apply local power factor correction to each inductive load. Then if the power company does not charge for bad power factor the only saving is in the I^2*R losses in the wiring from the meter to the load. There are some companies that claim there can be a payback. To determine if there is a reasonable payback may take a reasonably detailed analysis.

Clearly if there is a power factor penalty then you need to correct power factor.

There may be an opportunity for you in the commercial area in some parts of the country. In our area few small businesses are charged for poor power factor.

You can have bad power factor that is not correctable with a simple shunt capacitor. Probably most devices with with a bridge rectifier across the line feeding a capacitor input filter, such as computers, electronic ballasts, and CFLs would fall in this category. Many of these devices on a system cause flattening of the voltage waveform peak.

.
 
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