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Q: Power Factor Controller ( No Answer,   2 Comments )
Question  
Subject: Power Factor Controller
Category: Science > Instruments and Methods
Asked by: niconet2k-ga
List Price: $2.00
Posted: 27 Aug 2005 15:02 PDT
Expires: 26 Sep 2005 15:02 PDT
Question ID: 561223
I am looking for small power factor controllers, much like this one here on ebay:
http://www.niconet2k.com/~nicodemus/ebaymirror/pfc/eBayISAPI.html
I've looked all over on the web and can't seem to find anything,
except for large scale power factor controllers.  I've tried finding
this Watt Wizard company that makes this one, but I can't find
anything on them.
Answer  
There is no answer at this time.

Comments  
Subject: Re: Power Factor Controller
From: formica34-ga on 27 Aug 2005 19:00 PDT
 
That device looks pretty shady to me - I wouldn't be surprised if it
didn't actually do much.  What does it mean to "save up to 60-percent
of your electrical usage"?  Almost every residential consumer is
billed by real power, not apparent power, so their power factor
doesn't affect their power bill.  Large industrial or commercial power
consumers do get penalized for bad power factor, but this device will
be too small to do anything for large industrial or commercial
equipment.

Looking at the picture on the box, it says "Induction Motor
Economiser".  This probably means it's designed to correct the power
factor for inductive motors, not electronic loads.  Thus, it's
probably (at most) just a capacitor in a box, sized for typical single
phase motors.

Here's some more info on power factor correction:
http://www.lmphotonics.com/pwrfact.htm
Subject: Re: Power Factor Controller
From: kmclean-ga on 02 Sep 2005 11:13 PDT
 
Most, if not all, Residential users are billed on real power.  However
for what its worth, higher current damand means higher copper
losses(real) which the consumer is billed for.  Also, most power
companies will offer discounts for installing power factor correction
devices.  That being said, there is practally no possible way for the
consumer to save 60% on their power bill.

Unless you were the only consumer at the end of a long single phase
tap, and as a condition of service the consumer was fractionally
billed on all basis.  (part of the bill was based on all factors,
power, power factor, kwh, etc.)

They probablly sold to one person with a strange contract for service
and it resulted in 60% drop, for most residental users it would result
in less than 5%.

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