G'day Guys ...

I hope all of us doing great and are in best shape that we could be,

Today, I was wondering if anyone of us thought of a domestic use Power factor Unit ... Does it work??? Is it worth to build one...?? Any thoughts or advice or suggestions

I am not sure of Electricity bills in your part of land, but down under it is getting expensive and expensive...

Cheers,

MajSyd2010

 

Are you sure you're being charged for PF losses on your domestic energy bill?

 

Do you mean a power factor correction unit - adding capacitance to get the PF as close to 1 as possible?

Domestic electricity meters only measure kWh so the PF will not effect your bill. So not worth it.

PS: Been to Sydney twice and I love it! And I've done the bridge climb!

 

Do you mean to duplicate one of these:

http://www.energymonitors.com/produ...ategory=2352&gclid=CPPGpt25wqcCFQprKgodEGWw4w

 

Hi majsyd, Checkout the editorial in this months Siliconchip magazine. What i think you are looking at is a scam. There was artical on TV here recently also. The claims were if you plug this device into the a power point it will reduce your power bill by up to 30%. Doesnt work, all there is in the unit is a couple of capacitors a couple or resistors & a LED. Keep your money. The de bunking of this product was in an article of Siliconchip back in Nov 2007 & again in May2008.

 

What do you mean by PF losses on your domestic

Are you sure you're being charged for PF losses on your domestic energy bill?

 

I did read that article but not sure of scam, I was more thinking to spend money and built it and see if it works ... I dont know yet that is why need your advise ..

Hi majsyd, Checkout the editorial in this months Siliconchip magazine. What i think you are looking at is a scam. There was artical on TV here recently also. The claims were if you plug this device into the a power point it will reduce your power bill by up to 30%. Doesnt work, all there is in the unit is a couple of capacitors a couple or resistors & a LED. Keep your money. The de bunking of this product was in an article of Siliconchip back in Nov 2007 & again in May2008.

 

You aren't charged for power factor at your home.

 

power factor correction CAN increase the efficiency of a motor. Large motors(like one in central cooling and heating systems) can benefit from PF correction, when applied only to that device. Power factor levels in a household change everytime a different number of devices are powered on or off. No way to correct for that ever changing situation(cheaply).

Placing power factor correction on a single appliance CAN save you the money lost to its inefficiency. Newer motors are already very well balanced for this, but older motors could benefit from it.

It might save you $20-40 dollars on electric cost for running that motor during the course of a year or so.

 

power factor correction CAN increase the efficiency of a motor. Large motors(like one in central cooling and heating systems) can benefit from PF correction, when applied only to that device.

you don't apply pf correction to a device. You can't change the devices inherant characteristics with pf correction. Power Factor correction offsets those characteristics so that the supply 'sees' a load that has a unity ratio of real to apparent. Modern VFDs can reduce efficiency losses over the speed range, and do have capacitive characteristics on thier inputs, but even that doesn't help an ineffeciently designed motor.

 

I did read that article but not sure of scam, I was more thinking to spend money and built it and see if it works ... I dont know yet that is why need your advise ..

What's there to see?
As a domestic user you are not charged for low power factor so nothing you do to the power factor is going to make the slightest difference to you power bills.
This whole domestic power factor correction business is nothing more than a scam.

 

you don't apply pf correction to a device. You can't change the devices inherant characteristics with pf correction. Power Factor correction offsets those characteristics so that the supply 'sees' a load that has a unity ratio of real to apparent. Modern VFDs can reduce efficiency losses over the speed range, and do have capacitive characteristics on thier inputs, but even that doesn't help an ineffeciently designed motor.

I'll go remove the extra caps from my AC blower motor then...

Didn't realize I was doing the impossible. THANKS


(wish you had a smiley that rolled its eyes - but Oh well)

 

I'll go remove the extra caps from my AC blower motor then...

Didn't realize I was doing the impossible. THANKS


(wish you had a smiley that rolled its eyes - but Oh well)

I queried another member in regards to this concept, but never really got an answer. What is it that pf correction does to make a motor more efficient? I'm aware of phasing aux windings in single phase motors with caps. Is this what your referring to? I would like to know as I'm sure would other readers to better understand this mystical pf correction thing.

I'll point you to whatever smileys you need to engage in effective discussion.

 

I queried another member in regards to this concept, but never really got an answer. What is it that pf correction does to make a motor more efficient? I'm aware of phasing aux windings in single phase motors with caps. Is this what your referring to? I would like to know as I'm sure would other readers to better understand this mystical pf correction thing.

I'll point you to whatever smileys you need to engage in effective discussion.

The motor is not more efficient, the transmission lines to it are. You need to read up on the phase relations between current and voltage in circuits containing rl and c.

 

The motor is not more efficient, the transmission lines to it are. You need to read up on the phase relations between current and voltage in circuits containing rl and c.

I'll take that as a no vote. I'm hoping that Kermit2 will come back and justify his claim that efficiency of the motor is improved (with rolling eyes).

 

Word of wisdoms ... Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, you gotta love this