Quote:
Originally Posted by locknut
Is anyone here using a so-called Power Saver? If so, what have you gained? Has it lived up to the promise of saving on your electric bill? Judging by the ads it's the best thing since sliced bread.
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Locknut: Power Factor correction was something I took in university as part of the electrical courses I had to take as a mechanical engineer. This is the kind of thing that DOES make economic sense if you're talking about a factory with lots of inductive loads, like electric motors and fluorescent lighting. Where you're paying $10,000 per month on your electric bill, it makes economic sense to reduce that electric bill by adding industrial capacitors.
However, for a typical household, the amount you're likely to save is small (pennies per month) even for sophisticated systems that actively change the amount of capacitors in the circuit depending on the load at the time.
As with most of these kinds of items, they will in theory save you money. The amount you'll save is where the questionable advertising and misinformation generally come in.
The truth is that if you could significantly reduce your electric bill by installing these capacitors, then your own government would be encouraging you to do so with incentive programs sponsored by your local electric utility just as they do with programs to add insulation to your house or to install higher efficiency heating equipment or to replace your incandescent lights with compact fluorescent bulbs. If there were a significant savings to be had, your government would be encouraging you to make the change, not just the company selling this capacitor.
I agree that the best thing you can do to save on electricity in your home is to turn off lights you're not using, and if you have electric heat, put on a sweater instead of turning the thermostat up.
Power Saver Capacitor
Linear Mode
