Shunt Efficiency System: free power!

[sparky101]

There's been several devices similar to to this in recent years, all claiming the same shit. The Equalizer claimed 30% savings, then there was Perfect-Power from Nutri-life. PF correction is only worth using on motors. They will do nothing on ballasts. Once a ballast is on, it never fluctuates the current or voltage. In all the years I've worked as an electrician, or time spent in school, never heard of any device that will save money using ballasts, not motors. IMHO it's a piece of shit.


sparky101

 

[cashmunny]

Getting energy for free is basically a perpetual motion machine and violates the second law of thermodynamics. There is no free lunch.

Neither inductance nor capacitance dissipates energy, they merely store it in the form of a magnetic or electric field. While it is true that inductance and capacitance shift the phase of the current relative to the voltage, a zero phase difference would maximize energy use not minimize it. But in any case, energy is always conserved and the power company will make you pay for it.

In high frequency transmission lines such as 75 ohm cable TV, the power transferred is maximized when the input impedance of the load matches the output impedance of the supply, but this is a completely different application than high frequency transmission lines. Besides which you would have to exactly match the inductive L of an infinite number of possible home energy use scenarios with your capacitive 1/C in order to ensure a zero phase difference between voltage and current. Using too much or too little capacitance would overshoot/undershoot and shift your phase in a different direction. So that explanation leaves something to be desired. By adding a very large capacitance you could shift the phase of the current versus voltage to almost -90 degrees, I'm not sure what that buys you though except adding surge current capability from the charge stored in the capacitors.

I can see however how some device of this sort would work as a filter for electrical noise. But I have a sneaking suspicion the operational principal is a voltage brown out so that power consumed is less because voltage delivered is less. There is one way to tell, measure the voltage delivered with the device connected and without. It would only take a 4.9 % reduction in voltage to achieve a 10% reduction in power consumed since power is proportional to voltage squared. So if this device reduced your voltage to 114 volts from 120 it would achieve the advertised savings. At the expensive of dimmer lights.

I could be wrong, it's been known to happen.

 

[vicious bee]

SneakySneaky-Damn that's interesting. I assumed (and you know what that means) that the system was based on capacitors. I looked up the patent and it does have capacitors in it. It has some kind of weird coil feedback circuit. Not immediately apparent how it works. Do they offer money back if it doesn't provide a certain amount of savings?
I googled the power factor for HID lights and came up with this,"What are Some of the Things that can Cause Poor Power Factor?
Basically any non-linear loads can impact it. The following list contains some examples:
Non power factor corrected fluorescent & HID lighting fixture ballasts (40-80% pf)
". So if it corrects the power factor there should be savings.
cashmunny-Your not getting something for free. Your getting to use something you already paid for. When the power factor is low the current peaks do not match the voltage peaks. This lowers the power you can use. BUT the power company CHARGES YOU FOR ALL OF IT. So if you can correct the power factor your using all the power you draw. This means you need less for a given load. Large industrial sites use large banks of capacitors to correct the power factor. It can save them hundreds of thousands of dollars. If this system works and they can keep the cost down they could sell a load of these.

 

[cashmunny]

Hmmm, OK I see your point I think. But wouldn't the device have to know how much L you have in order to provide the exactly compensating 1/C to create zero reactance? How could you do this for the infinite variety of loads that people would hook up?

I guess if the device was really smart it could measure L and provide the correct 1/C to compensate.

 

[vicious bee]

I don't know really but here's a wild slightly educated guess. If you look at the patent there is the line feeding through a coil. Maybe the interaction of a created magnetic field regulates or chocks how much current is stored into the coil. This is then fed to the other phase. Of course this last complicated sentence means. I don't know what the hell I'm talking about. They explain that the capacitor and transformer make a 60Hz filter. Maybe if the voltage is not lined up with the current it filters how much current is fed to the next phase. I only looked at the schematic and scanned the patent so I'm guessing.

 

[SneakySneaky]

I love u smart people. The more intelligent responses I get the smarter I'm gonna sound when I call and ask him the questions lol. I grow salt water coral for a living during the day I have 1500 plus watts of halides running and @ nite there's 8k hps running. I'd say I have a constant draw of some sorts. Ill be the first to admit I'm not electrically inclined, I know where my Wii plugs in and how to run a 50 amp breaker line but that's about it lol. Can't wait to try this bad boy out

 

[vicious bee]

How do you grow grow salt water coral? That sounds interesting. I didn't even know there was such a thing. I thought it was gathered from the ocean. Could you grow it outdoors in a tank? What temperature does it grow at?

 

[guest 77721]

Hey Sneaky

The unit you have is a capacitor that will provide some power factor correction. If you watch the video, you will see the pf change from 0.936 to 0.994 as the capactive load is applied.

Powerfactor isn't an issue in residential applications as there isn't enough inductive loads to cause a phase shift in the current. I know in industry, power billing includes the powerfactor. The guy taking the measurements is looking at KW (real power) and saying that the billing won't go down, in fact the KW (real power) went up, but the KVA (apparent power) went down. It's quite likely that residential use is billed on real power since powerfactor normally isn't an issue.

In Industry, powerfactor becomes a concern when it drops below 0.7. In the video, this guys house with all the inductive loads, fans, AC etc.. cause a 0.936 pf which is not worth correcting.

BTW, if you have magnetic ballasts these are inductive loads which will shift the pf. Many ballasts have a pf rating on them.

Your best bet would be to get an electrician to measure your loads with a power meter just like the guy in the video. You might want to ask your local utility for what type of power you are billed for.

Looks like the same thing as this:
http://www.power-save.com/
$300 and very few will save any money by installing one.
Actually costs most people money to run one.
Internet search says scam...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIThybewb_o

 

[vicious bee]

Well there's an inexpensive meter that you can buy to test power factor. It's called a P3 International P4400 Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor meter. I see one for sale for USD 19.11. It reads the power factor. You plug it into a receptacle and then plug the piece of equipment into it. You could then see the power factor (pf) and figure how much your wasting. You could use this number and call the company tell them what kind of load you are running . Then let them give you an idea of how much pf they can correct. This would give you a return of investment number.Here's an article giving the cost in a typical home.
Is Power Factor Correction Justified in the Home?
http://powerelectronics.com/power_management/motor_power_management/power-factor-correction-0507/

 

[superultramega]

The capacitive load is permanent and is always drawing current

While this is technically true the load drops to near zero within a very short time.

This has been a pretty interesting read. Who knew how much EM physics I remembered from college? Can't believe I still remember how all this stuff works when reminded I knew it once.

 

[vicious bee]

This appears to be something different from a straight capacitive addition. I think it has analog feedback depending on the phase shift.

 

[guest 77721]

Man, I took this stuff over 20 years ago in my first year electrical technology. This is just a simple AC circuit using inductors, capacitors and resistors. Calculate the impedence for each component, solve for it's current and phase angle and compute total current and phase angle. The power factor is the cos(phase angle).