In article , Chet
writes
Way back when, (60's ?), there was movement to 'tune' your AC appliances
with some type of resonant circuit so they would be 'invisible' to the
electric company's power meter.
Is this actually a movement in the 'green' direction or simply a way of
paying less for the power you are actually using...
Haven't heard much about this over the past decade or two...
Is it time for this concept to make the rounds again?
Chet

If I remember correctly, there were devices which were supposed to work
as follows;
When a motor is delivering maximum power it has a mainly resistive
impedance; e.g. when starting.
When a motor is delivering less than its maximum power it has a larger
reactive component so that the power factor is less; the current and
voltage or not in phase so the 'apparent power' is more than the 'real
power'.
The device used acted a bit like a lamp dimmer so that it reduced the
voltage when the motor needed to deliver less than maximum power. The
result was that the motor was working as hard as it could at the reduced
voltage and so acted as a mainly resistive load with a good power
factor.
--
Chris Holford