The Real Truth Behind Household Power Savers
The Real Truth Behind Household Power Savers
The Real Truth Behind Household Power Savers
Many people who have used these power savers said that they could
reduce their electricity bills with the devices; however the reduction
was not as much as they had expected. Moreover, they could not gure
out if the reduction in electricity bills was due to the power savers or
because of their eorts to reduce their electrical usage. There have
been several serious discussions about the genuineness of the device.
In this note, we will try to nd the real truth behind these power
savers which claim to save as much as 40% of energy.
Power triangle
A further complication is that if you install the KVAR unit at the fuse
panel, it does nothing for the heat losses except for the two feet of
huge wire between the fuse panel and the utility meter. Many KVAR
units are marketed as boxes that you install at a single location.
If your power factor box is too large, then it will be providing reactive
power for something else, perhaps your neighbor.
Conclusion
Power factor correction devices improve power quality but do not
generally improve energy eciency (meaning they would not reduce
your energy bill). There are several reasons why their energy
eciency claims could be exaggerated.
First, residential customers are not charged for KVA hour usage, but
by kilowatt-hour usage. This means that any savings in energy
demand will not directly result in lowering a residential users utility
bill.
Second, the only potential for real power savings would occur if the
product were only put near in the circuit while a reactive load (such as
a motor) were running, and taken out of the circuit when the motor is
not running. This is impractical, given that there are several motors in
a typical home that can come on at any time (refrigerator, air
conditioner, HVAC blower, vacuum cleaner, etc.), but the Power Saver
itself is intended for permanent, unattended connection near the house
breaker panel.
And certainly not in the way the manufacturers recommend that they
be installed, that is, permanently connecting them at the main panel.
Doing that drags the power factor capacitive when the inductive
motors are o and could create some real problems with ringing
voltages.
The KVAR needs to be sized perfectly to balance the inductive loads.
Since our motors cycle on and o and we dont use the air conditioner
in the winter, there is no way to get it sized properly unless we have
something to monitor the line and switch it on and o capacity
(capacitors) as necessary.
Adding a capacitor can increase the line voltage to dangerous levels
because it interacts with the incoming power transmission lines. Adding
a capacitor to a line that has harmonic frequencies (created by some
electronic equipment) on it can result in unwanted resonance and high
currents.
For commercial facilities, power factor correction will rarely be
cost-eective based on energy savings alone. The bulk of cost savings
power factor correction can oer is in the form of avoided utility
charges for low power factor.
Energy savings are usually below 1% and always below 3% of load, the
higher percentage occurring where motors are a large fraction of the
overall load of a facility. Energy savings alone do not make an
installation cost eective.
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About Author //
Jignesh Parmar
jiguparmar - Jignesh Parmar has completed his
B.E(Electrical) from Gujarat University. He is
member of Institution of Engineers (MIE),India.
Membership No:M-1473586.He has more than 12
years experience in Transmission -DistributionElectrical Energy theft detection-Electrical
Maintenance-Electrical Projects (PlanningDesigning-Technical Review-coordination -Execution). He is Presently
associate with one of the leading business group as a Assistant Manager
at Ahmedabad,India. He has published numbers of Technical Articles in
"Electrical Mirror", "Electrical India", "Lighting India", "Industrial
Electrix"(Australian Power Publications) Magazines. He is Freelancer
Programmer of Advance Excel and design useful Excel base Electrical
Programs as per IS, NEC, IEC,IEEE codes. He is Technical Blogger and
Familiar with English, Hindi, Gujarati, French languages. He wants to
Share his experience & Knowledge and help technical enthusiasts to
nd suitable solutions and updating themselves on various Engineering
Topics.
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