Power factor correction/Capacitor banks for the home

[RU482]

I came across this website in a search for "inductive load". Interesting but kind of shady, I'm wondering why this idea hasn't been further exploited as a means of energy conservation.

Is this product legit?

 

[RU482]

another point of view

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: redly1
I came across this website in a search for "inductive load". Interesting but kind of shady, I'm wondering why this idea hasn't been further exploited as a means of energy conservation.

Is this product legit?

A capacitor bank? Is that all it is? If so, all a capacitor bank might do is filter out EM spikes in the electricity, and just store a little bit of juice. Something that small probably wouldn't be able to run a refrigerator for more than a second though.
Maybe I'm just not seeing something in the description, or maybe the product is totally useless.

 

[AbsolutDealage]

Originally posted by: redly1
another point of view

This little brochure, if I'm not mistaken, is more geared towards the business market. If you are the owner of a factory or a plant, this may apply to you. If not, then it is really kind of irrelevant.

Originally posted by: Jeff7
A capacitor bank? Is that all it is? If so, all a capacitor bank might do is filter out EM spikes in the electricity, and just store a little bit of juice. Something that small probably wouldn't be able to run a refrigerator for more than a second though.
Maybe I'm just not seeing something in the description, or maybe the product is totally useless.

No, the overall goal is not energy storage or filtering, it is efficiency.... you are failing to take into account that this is AC power we are talking about here.

If your home has a large amount of inductive loads (motors, etc.), you are not using your supplied power efficiently. Basically, if you have an inductor in an AC circuit, it is going to cause your voltage waveform and the current waveform to be out of phase. This causes the circuit to consume more power than it "should". The only way to fix this is to compensate for the inductive load with a counteracting capacitive load.

As a home solution, I don't really see this as being a huge issue. I don't exactly have any industrial-sized lightly loaded motors running 24x7 in my house... but maybe that's just me.

Frankly, I have doubts that this is even an issue in a home setting. The worst it will ever get is maybe you have your washing machine and your dryer going at the same time... Also, these units are definately not going to be cheap, and you have to look at the cost of the unit vs. the amount of money you would realistically save with it. It would most likely take you many many years to offset the initial costs.

So basically, this is not a "useless" product, but you could say it is a waste of money for the average Joe.

 

[CTho9305]

Originally posted by: AbsolutDealage

Originally posted by: redly1
another point of view

This little brochure, if I'm not mistaken, is more geared towards the business market. If you are the owner of a factory or a plant, this may apply to you. If not, then it is really kind of irrelevant.

Originally posted by: Jeff7
A capacitor bank? Is that all it is? If so, all a capacitor bank might do is filter out EM spikes in the electricity, and just store a little bit of juice. Something that small probably wouldn't be able to run a refrigerator for more than a second though.
Maybe I'm just not seeing something in the description, or maybe the product is totally useless.

No, the overall goal is not energy storage or filtering, it is efficiency.... you are failing to take into account that this is AC power we are talking about here.

If your home has a large amount of inductive loads (motors, etc.), you are not using your supplied power efficiently. Basically, if you have an inductor in an AC circuit, it is going to cause your voltage waveform and the current waveform to be out of phase. This causes the circuit to consume more power than it "should". The only way to fix this is to compensate for the inductive load with a counteracting capacitive load.

As a home solution, I don't really see this as being a huge issue. I don't exactly have any industrial-sized lightly loaded motors running 24x7 in my house... but maybe that's just me.

Frankly, I have doubts that this is even an issue in a home setting. The worst it will ever get is maybe you have your washing machine and your dryer going at the same time... Also, these units are definately not going to be cheap, and you have to look at the cost of the unit vs. the amount of money you would realistically save with it. It would most likely take you many many years to offset the initial costs.

So basically, this is not a "useless" product, but you could say it is a waste of money for the average Joe.

The power is wasted in the power lines. The power company cares because it burns power in its own lines instead of a customer's load, so nobody pays for it (well, industrial loads do get bonuses for power factors closer to 1, but homes dont). With a house-sized load, the waste is relatively small, and almost all of it in the power company's lines (so you personally don't pay for it directly anyway).