On Mar 9, 10:12*am, Lee wrote:
Rec'd an email from an electrician I'd contacted for an estimate a while
back. He was advertising some sort of power saver
(http://www.power-save1200.com/). I don't know enough about electricity
to know if this is legit. Something about saving electricity from
motors? Just curious, because with just having bought a new house, I've
moved out of the area he services anyhow, but if this is something that
actually works, I may eventually look into it.

Appears to be a power factor correction capacitor and if your system
power factor is indeed rather low, it could help out your electric
bill. Power factor tends to get out of whack the further from the
generating source you get. That's why you see those mysterious groups
of pole mounted boxes with twin insulators hooked up to the medium
voltage power lines way out in the country. Without them the power
company would lose money shoving more current through the wires.
In some areas the power company will measure a customers power factor
on request. This would help you judge whether any device would be
beneficial.
Some high line welding equipment can be supplied with capacitors
already installed to calm down the current draw and there likely other
examples in the market. Bottom line, if you are in a new subdivision
at the end of miles of power lines with no PF correction this device
could be useful. OTOH, there may be similar less pricey ways of adding
capacitance to your system. Maybe some of the EE's in this NG can
comment better on the topic. HTH

Joe