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Electricity Saving Box, do they work?

  • 11-05-2011 3:05pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 707 ✭✭✭


    So we had the guy in to service the water filtration system (not too sure if I can name the company so wont).

    Nice guy, chatted away and suddenly the conversation changed to our electricity bill;

    How much is your bill a month?
    Would you like it to be cheaper etc.?

    We knew it was a sales pitch but let him off. He was very good though to be fair and was talking about electrical currents moving in wavelengths and trying to make it appear as though you were putting the dots together.

    Anyway he says "We are selling this Electricity Saving Box" that could save you anywhere between 18-30% on your bill and has done so for over 3000 of our customers.

    Our first question was how much, to which we got, "sure its €49 but I will take off the VAT and give it to you for €40".

    Next question: You have mentioned about the research and studies done, please give the name of one as my laptop is on and I would like to have a quick look.
    Response "Ummm, ahhh" then he handed me the box and said look for yourself.

    I googled like crazy (a 2 min search) and found that it does regulate the power supply but surges are not meant to be charged in our bills anyway (I may be wrong here, corrections welcome). We said thank you but no thanks to him saying that his bill has decreased 20%. To be honest I think he probably plugged it in during February and compared the bill to the last one in Winter (so it would be less).

    So heres the question, does anyone out there have this device and notice a difference? The box also said "Regulated by the Chinese Energy Board" don't know if thats a good thing or not?

    Mods, apologies if posted in the wrong forum


Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 17,919 ✭✭✭✭orourkeda


    Perhaps using less electricity would reduce your bill


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,168 ✭✭✭Tow


    Your 2min search on google should have given you the answer. They make no difference on a domestic supply/bill.

    When is the money (including lost growth) Michael Noonan took in the Pension Levy going to be paid back?



  • Closed Accounts Posts: 17,919 ✭✭✭✭orourkeda


    make the big switch


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,023 ✭✭✭Fukuyama


    I've heard of these for indistrial power supply units. Industrial power is charged during surges for some reason.... residential is not.

    Also, unless it's been EU tested and certified, don't buy. Sounds like a pyramid scheme, he'll be trying to sell you a 'licence' to sell and install them next:rolleyes:


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,933 ✭✭✭holystungun9


    The electricity saving box is that thing on the wall in every room. Switch it one way, use electricity, switch it the other way, instant savings, guaranteed.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 8,344 ✭✭✭Ray Palmer


    The water filter is a scam and without an explanation to how it saves electricity I would say that is a scam too.
    A current regulator wouldn't save you any money


  • Registered Users Posts: 19,802 ✭✭✭✭suicide_circus


    Read title as

    Electricity shaving box


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,637 ✭✭✭brightspark


    Devices similar to what you are describing were being heavily advertised about 18 months ago, at least one had a complaint against it upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASAI).

    They won't reduce your bill. save your money and use it to buy energy saving light bulbs instead.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,431 ✭✭✭M cebee


    if it's those voltage regulator things

    they're prob a waste of time


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 13,422 ✭✭✭✭Bruthal


    Probalby them units sold as power factor correction things. Even if they perfectly corrected any less than parity domestic power factor, the whole current meter does not measure this, so no difference to your bill.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 13,422 ✭✭✭✭Bruthal


    Read title as

    Electricity shaving box

    Shave €€€`s off your bill:D


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 13,422 ✭✭✭✭Bruthal


    Ray Palmer wrote: »
    The water filter is a scam and without an explanation to how it saves electricity I would say that is a scam too.
    A current regulator wouldn't save you any money

    I remember a fella coming around and demonstrating how clean the water is from one of their filters compared to tap water, by putting his "filtered" water into a jar and putting the jar into a device, and nothing happened. Then the same with tap water, and it all went brown while bubbling away, and their marketing was telling people its polution in the tap water appearing.

    The reality was his filtered water was really distilled water which a filtration unit wont be producing, and the device he was testing the water in was simply 2 probes with a voltage on them, causing an electrolysis reaction.

    So nothing happened with electrolysis probes in his distilled sample as it conducts no electricity. A scam to scare people into buying the filtration units when they believe the tap water "pollution" is showing up in his machine.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,431 ✭✭✭M cebee


    robbie7730 wrote: »
    Probalby them units sold as power factor correction things. Even if they perfectly corrected any less than parity domestic power factor, the whole current meter does not measure this, so no difference to your bill.



    i heard of a gadget here alright that was for power factor and surges

    these are the other 'voltage optimizer' things
    http://www.wolf-passivehomes.com/products/electrical/vphase-voltage-optimiser.html

    they're all gimmicks-people will believe anything when they're bamboozled with BS


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 13,422 ✭✭✭✭Bruthal


    Interestingly enough, if you move the electricity meter closer to the load, the bill will reduce, not that its practical etc, but as a matter of interest, if you have a 50 meter run to a shower, the meter will read slightly less if beside the shower than if at the start of the cable run.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 13,422 ✭✭✭✭Bruthal


    M cebee wrote: »
    they're all gimmicks-people will believe anything when they're bamboozled with BS

    Thats for sure.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,637 ✭✭✭brightspark


    robbie7730 wrote: »
    Interestingly enough, if you move the electricity meter closer to the load, the bill will reduce, not that its practical etc, but as a matter of interest, if you have a 50 meter run to a shower, the meter will read slightly less if beside the shower than if at the start of the cable run.

    Because of the volt drop losses I expect


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 13,422 ✭✭✭✭Bruthal


    Because of the volt drop losses I expect

    Yes thats what it is. The same thing happens if a 10kv transformer is on a premises, if the meter is before the transformer, the electricity bill will include the transformer losses.


  • Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 10,952 Mod ✭✭✭✭Stoner


    these things are a scam. First of all there would be a government intensive to fit them everywhere if they worked, second of all the ESB wold insist that they were installed if they worked. I'd say its the PFC unit alright, there is loads of correct information out there about how power factor correction can save money, it can in the right application and when applied to the correct load. These guys have used this proven technology and applied it to a domestic situation, where the load and measuring equipment is different.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,612 ✭✭✭Dardania


    M cebee wrote: »
    i heard of a gadget here alright that was for power factor and surges

    these are the other 'voltage optimizer' things
    http://www.wolf-passivehomes.com/products/electrical/vphase-voltage-optimiser.html

    they're all gimmicks-people will believe anything when they're bamboozled with BS

    WHat about transformation losses through this? Surely that knocks a few percent off any possible saving...


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 13,422 ✭✭✭✭Bruthal


    Dardania wrote: »
    WHat about transformation losses through this? Surely that knocks a few percent off any possible saving...

    The loads in houses would not be fed through these devices, power factor correction units for example which are used in commercial and industrial installations are connected in parallel with circuits they are correcting. So the power used by items does not actually go through the power factor units.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 3,612 ✭✭✭Dardania


    robbie7730 wrote: »
    The loads in houses would not be fed through these devices, power factor correction units for example which are used in commercial and industrial installations are connected in parallel with circuits they are correcting. So the power used by items does not actually go through the power factor units.

    I agree with you on PFC units, and I spec them for projects where there is a kVAR meter in case ESB Networks are going to charge for being below .95 or if there's a BER cert to be generated.

    My query is on those voltage optimisation units as I have heard of them before - and my first reaction was similar to yours - do you take the more precise voltage into account when sizing cables, to save on i^2 r losses, or are any benefits of a more precise voltage outweighed by transformation loses through the device


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 13,422 ✭✭✭✭Bruthal


    Dardania wrote: »
    My query is on those voltage optimisation units as I have heard of them before - and my first reaction was similar to yours - do you take the more precise voltage into account when sizing cables, to save on i^2 r losses, or are any benefits of a more precise voltage outweighed by transformation loses through the device

    Well if a load is 10kw at 240v, it will draw 41.6 amps, so if its supply is optomised to 230v it would take 40 amps and would now be operating at 9.2kw. So the optomizer would reduce the kw`s used, by reducing the shower output.

    Proper transformers and optomizers are highly efficient so there are very little losses in them. Power transformers are probably 99.8% efficient.

    For the cable size and i^r losses, if the original size cables are still used, the cables would now be carrying less current, so the i^r losses in them would be lower due to lower current, if the cable sizes were now reduced for a smaller current, then the i^r losses would be back up a little in the cables, but a higher i^r in the cables means a reduced current to the load anyway, so as the losses in the cable increase, the bill reduces anyway, as does the load output. It would reduce further if you had the meter at the load end of the cable as well, but that cant be done obviously.

    The devices mentioned in the topic here are plug in ones i think, as mentioned in the OP, so they would not be voltage optomizers covering the house, but these claimed PF correction units more likely. Sellers will just call them optomizers as that sounds more appealing to a lay person than a PF unit possibly. A PF unit is a type of optomizer anyway.


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