Electricity Saving Box

Discussion in 'General Hardware' started by jasperchc, Mar 4, 2008.

  1. jasperchc

    jasperchc Newbie

    Hi, i am thinking of buying an Electricity Saving Box for my home, hoping that it would save my electricity bill, but i am trying to figure out if the device really works or not. So anyone here have or used them before? do they really work?

    I read online, some people say they dont work, others say they do work. So if you have first hand experience with the device, your input would be very much appriciated.
     
  2. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    I don't think such things will work.
     
  3. Trinity

    Trinity Little Kiki Staff Member

  4. belikethat

    belikethat Just Started

    yeha i heard about it...install ti for few hundred bucks and it illegal :p
    it works by slowly increaseing ur meter.. not sure
     
  5. Max_87

    Max_87 huehuehue

    I think the one you mention is something else :haha: This electricity saving box can be bought retail :mrgreen:

    My home used to have one of those electricity saving box... which does nothing as far as what we observed.

    I think it's collecting dust somewhere in my home right now :haha:
     
  6. bslee

    bslee Newbie

    What "electricity saving box" are you refering to? Any links to pics and specs?.
    The one I know "should" work is actually consists of a bank of capacitors for power factor correction. Google for PF correction and you'd get a technical explanation. These things only work under certain conditions where a home may have lots of flourecent lighting and motor based equipment. If you have incandecent bulb lighting (also exclude energy saving ones)..that box does very little or nothing.
    What can be done in for most flourecent lighting is to fit a capacitor across the lighting terminal within the light fitting. Do that for every fitting and you're more or less done.

    Perhaps to further enlight: Power factor correction unit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
     
  7. jasperchc

    jasperchc Newbie

    i am talking about the one that claim to do it via power factor correction. I remember studying about power factor in college and the theory does sound. However, whether the device really works or not, i dont know. So anyone else using them and notice reduction in your month enegy bill?
     
  8. bslee

    bslee Newbie

    It depends on one's home where there's lots of flourecent lighting and air conditioners, it may help in some savings, NOT huge savings. Most local flourecent fittings omit a capacitor in the fitting to save cost. It costs a few bucks each and its easy to fix one in every fitting. At least its something done.
    AFAIK, light fittings in developed countries are fitted with components that conform to strictest safety regulations. They do things right there..but NOT here. Here, many issues get away with murder...very typical.
     
  9. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Okay, I have one of these and I've put it up for sale in the FTZ.

    To be frank, it works best for incandescent lighting and maybe simpler electrical devices like toaster, oven, etc. But it doesn't help with modern equipment like fluourescent lighting or air-conditioner cause they already have something similar in them.

    If I'm not mistaken, it works as a power line stabilizer. Hence, effects are very limited or non-existent unless you use incandescent lighting or similarly inefficient devices.

    This is why I'm selling it. It doesn't help at all with my condo. I use only fluourescent lighting (to save power, of course!).
     
  10. 64bit

    64bit Newbie

    I have came across some power saving device but it states that it works best on motor-driven electrical products such as washing machine. Not sure how does it actually works, but it should be based on the magnetic theory
     
  11. jasperchc

    jasperchc Newbie

    ah, with so many negative feedback, i guess i shouldnt get it then :snooty: Thanks guys.
     
  12. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    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.
     
  13. plasma

    plasma Newbie

    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. :)
     
  14. 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
     
  15. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

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

    siongboon Newbie

    Hi,

    I have wrote a detail article regarding how a power saver work.
    Hope this will help people to have a better understanding of the power saver.

    siongboon.com/
    projects/2012-01-24_power_saver/

    Best Regards,
    Siong Boon
     
    1 person likes this.
  17. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Fantastic write-up! +rep! :thumb:

    Guys, you should read How Power Saver Works? or perhaps Don't work. before falling for such a scam!
     
  18. Kristahiles

    Kristahiles Newbie

    They don’t really work. If have used it earlier for my place as well, but waste of money.
     
  19. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Yeah, they most definitely don't work.

    There are industrial/commercial-grade "power savers" that work but they do that by intercepting the higher voltages and stepping it down to a lower voltage. There's no way these devices do that.

    Still, those commercial devices don't save much power. Even if the input voltages are very high, they would only save 10-15% at most.
     

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