Electricity Saving Box

[jasperchc]

ah, with so many negative feedback, i guess i shouldnt get it then Thanks guys.

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by jasperchc

ah, with so many negative feedback, i guess i shouldnt get it then Thanks guys.

Yeah, would be a good idea not to. Not unless you have an old house with lots of incandescent lighting.

If you see their demonstrations.. they will never use fluourescent lighting.. because it just doesn't work. They will only use stuff like incandescent lighting to show you how much power you can save.

Some will show you samples of electrical bills... but I'll bet they only used incandescent lighting. With fluourescent lighting, it has no effect.

[plasma]

AC Power is optimal when the voltage wave is in phase with the current wave.
With equipments such as fans, washing machines, basically anything with a coil/motor, the voltage and current may get out of phase.

What the equipment tries to do is to correct this out-of-phase situation, very common in households and is actually properly managed in factories.

What the device fail to address is - well, does your voltage lead the current or is lagging behind? And by how much?

To really save power, one need to measure this for each household - and as you would have guessed, it changes as you add or remove appliances, as well as what is turned on.

A general solution does not exist, and you hear some real testaments that it works simply because it worked by random! Some households have the voltage leading and some lagging.

[thelastmeterman]

Originally Posted by plasma

AC Power is optimal when the voltage wave is in phase with the current wave.
With equipments such as fans, washing machines, basically anything with a coil/motor, the voltage and current may get out of phase.

What the equipment tries to do is to correct this out-of-phase situation, very common in households and is actually properly managed in factories.

What the device fail to address is - well, does your voltage lead the current or is lagging behind? And by how much?

To really save power, one need to measure this for each household - and as you would have guessed, it changes as you add or remove appliances, as well as what is turned on.

A general solution does not exist, and you hear some real testaments that it works simply because it worked by random! Some households have the voltage leading and some lagging.

exactly... sometimes power factor can make your meter run backwards, industrial factories have to pay a penalty for a poor power factor.. so why would you want to correct it?

an incandescent light bulb runs at about 100% power factor, meaning it consumes all the energy needed for it to run....however an electric motor needs a lot of current to start up but after it is running the momentum of the motor turning(especially if there is a heavy weight attached ie. saw blade, heavy fan...) tends to distort the sine wave of the electricity because the force of the motor turning acts as a generator causing very poor power factor( i've seen low as 34%)
however FLORESCENT lights are the worst( ive seen power factor as low as 14% at warehouses running nothing but lighting) but unless you own a big buisness and are billed based on KWH,KW demand ,and Power Factor you are running up the wrong tree...if you want to save money on your light bill stop using kilo-watt hours!!!thats it....turn the thermostat down or up 5 degrees more or less than you can normally stand it, dont use dry cycle on dish washer, install a timer on your hot water heater, capture solar energy and sell it back to the power co., ask you power company if they have a time of use program, which means when everybody else is using power like early in the morning you pay more however when nobody is using power like after 7 @ night you get power at half price...its to help control peaks and encourage you to not waste energy.....turn lights out when not in use, a leaky hot water heater can cost you $70 extra a month, a loose duct can cost $50-$100 a month, keep the heat or cool in ( open and close doors immediately) also a programmable thermostat is a good investment....but there is no magic box that you plug in....just think though electricity is one of a few utilities that you actually use the product and then buy what you used...unlike cell phones


wikipedia....... power factor

[Adrian Wong]

Wait.. I'm getting a little confused here. Aren't fluourescent lights better and use less power?