On Mon, 20 Nov 2006 19:18:13 GMT, "Joseph Meehan"
wrote:

Tom The Great wrote:
This is not spam, it is a serious question about a commercial that
claims a product that can save up to 25% electric usage, without
reducing power usage of applicances?

The website: WWW(dot)PowerSaveTV(dot)Com

They claim UL listed, so I guess it means it won't burn down the
house, but has anyone figured what is going on here? Is it real? Is
it a bank of capacitors to change the PowerFactor?

Any insight, or reviews would be appreciated.

thank you,

tom

I did not follow the link, but I have seen a number of like product
claims in the past. They all end up doing the same thing. Yes under very
careful controlled conditions they could do what they claim. That is the UP
TO part of their claim. In real life is it like zero. As I recall it
takes a very inefficient motor and special operating conditions and even
then it is likely to hit any savings over 1% a small fraction of 1% of the
total time.

In short if it sounds too good to be true it is too good to be true.
Your skeptical nature wins again.


A friend of mine tried to 'steal' electricity. This is how.

The electric meter is based on a PowerFactor of 0.8, meaning that
observed 100 watts of electric usage means only 80 watts was really
used, so the meter shows 80 watts. He thought he could get his house
setup so it could get a power factor of 1. So the house would use 80
watts, the meter would see 80 watts but since it still expected 0.8 PF
it would only show 64 watts used. So 16 watts would be taken for
free.

This discussion was back in the early 90's, I was wondering if this
product was a realization of a crazy idea to defraud the electric
company.

Now all this is guessing, I am no expert to this product, so just
thinking out loud, and seeking information.

tom