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A device that makes your house use less power — Parallax Forums

A device that makes your house use less power

Bobb FwedBobb Fwed Posts: 1,119
edited 2010-10-04 16:54 in General Discussion
I will try to look up the name, but my friend's dad sells a product that you put onto your incoming power into your house. And with some circuitry and a ton of capacitors it supposedly causes you to use less power. I think the idea is that it reduces the spikes of power from when you flip a switch or turn something on. These power spikes cause wasted energy, or the electric company charges you more for them, or something.

How exactly does this device work? You are trying to control AC power, seems like capacitors would not be the solution unless you convert to DC first, then back to AC, but that seems like it would cause a massive loss in efficiency.

My friend's dad, is very electronics savvy, he repairs CRT TVs for a living, and he's an honest man, he would be selling it if he didn't believe it worked.

Any insight would be appreciated.

Comments

  • Mike GreenMike Green Posts: 23,101
    edited 2010-10-04 10:22
    It's hard to tell from your description, but this sounds like a power factor corrector. This is a device that is used industrially in situations where there are lots of high power motors being using. Motors are primarily inductive and the current through and voltage across the motor windings tend to peak at different times because of this inductance. I think there are higher losses in the transmission of power to the motors under these circumstances and the metering for the power is higher than the actual power used as well. By adding capacitance to the circuit, the inductive effect is balanced out and the apparent excess power use (and losses) are reduced.

    This really doesn't make much sense in a residential environment. Most of the power usage in a home is resistive or balanced (some capacitive and some inductive) and there would be little to be gained by having a power factor corrector.

    See this Wikipedia article
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,260
    edited 2010-10-04 10:36
    Refrigerators use most of the electricity in a household (OK, after air conditioning or electric heating).

    Maybe you could get an old inefficient fridge that someone is throwing away and reverse the polarity to GAIN electrical efficiency and reduce your electric bill.








    Yes, I'm kidding. I just watched an old Lost in Space episode where any problem can be undone by "reversing the polarity". If only life was that easy...

    Seriously, the best way to improve power efficiency is through education & awareness. It sounds like a cop out, but the "Prius Effect" can't be denied: http://www.personalmetrics.us/2010/04/the-prius-effect/
  • Peter KG6LSEPeter KG6LSE Posts: 1,383
    edited 2010-10-04 10:39
    Mind with all these CFL bulbs the PF will go sky high . I have a well documented case of a light switch catching on fire with to many CFLs on its branch .
    very few are PFC'ed

    I used my Kill-o-watts meter to read VA vs Watts .

    One brand name bulb was a PF of .73 EWWWW .
  • skylightskylight Posts: 1,915
    edited 2010-10-04 11:45
    Most houses have a device that makes the house use no power, it's called the main switch. :lol:
  • Shawn LoweShawn Lowe Posts: 635
    edited 2010-10-04 11:51
    I agree with mike, I think the only way to save tons of power is to correct the Power Factor of the home.
    @PeterKG6LSE- I had no idea CFL had such a lousy power factor. Of course, I have'nt looked into it either.
  • Bobb FwedBobb Fwed Posts: 1,119
    edited 2010-10-04 16:18
    The product is called "Powerworx".
    I did a quick search on google, with some people saying they have it, and it works, and others saying, there is no way it could give you the results they're getting. But in the 5 minutes of reading, never saw any hard evidence either way.
  • mctriviamctrivia Posts: 3,772
    edited 2010-10-04 16:43
    i have seen these products before. They do not save you any power(or at last not much). They do to some extent correct the power factor of your home and to a grater effect reduce harmonics on the line which can seriously hurt your sensitive electronics(why you should always have a good UPS on your computer).

    As a commercial electrician part of my job is knowing how big of a cap I need to install to correct the power factor for a plant. traditionally the caps were installed right by the motors but now a days modern electronics have moved the caps to 1 location with computers controlling how many of the caps are used at any given time.
  • Bobb FwedBobb Fwed Posts: 1,119
    edited 2010-10-04 16:54
    mctrivia wrote: »
    ...why you should always have a good UPS on your computer...

    I didn't have one until a few power surges fried my PSU and motherboard. The PSU was supposed to have all the goodies to protect the computer and all, but no dice. I sent each in for warranty, ASUS had no problems replacing the mobo, and my PSU company (don't remember which) gave me a free 100Watt upgrade! But it sucked not having my primary computer for a couple weeks.

    Now I have a nice UPS to prevent anything like that happening again, and so when the power goes out, I can still continue to work on the propeller (or play games)!
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