New Electricity Saving Device...

[Dardedar]

DAR
A friend sent me this and asked for my input. I am rather skeptical.

> NHNE News List
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> ------------
>
> STOCKTON ENGINEER CREATES ENERGY SAVING DEVICE
> By John Lander
> CBS13
> December 13, 2006
>
> http://cbs13.com/local/local_story_347191740.html
>
> STOCKTON, Calif. - Chuck Larue may be the man
> who drastically cuts your
> electricity bill. For fourteen years, Chuck and
> his partner have quietly
> been inventing a little micro controller called
> the "Plug Power Saver."
>
> He claims it works on all electric motors from
> your air conditioner to
> refrigerators, washing machines to whole house
> fans. He rigged a one-third
> horsepower motor to show us the savings.
>
> Without the controller, ³It's drawing 171 to
> 180 watts."
>
> Plug in the Power Saver and, ³It's trying to
> find the most optimum levels of
> power consumption. So it's got to learn about
> what you are using. Yes it is.
> It actually has a microprocessor in here."
>
> After a few seconds, the motor is running
> strong but using half the
> electricity. And if you know anything about
> electricity, you know this motor
> running normally should be warm to the touch,
> it isn¹t.

DAR
I see claims, I don't see verifiable evidence. I seriously doubt this little device can make an electric motor more efficient (and to double it's efficiency without damaging the motor? Rubbish).

> That seems to show no extra electricity is
> being lost as heat.

DAR
And this is accomplished by limiting the amount of current? Suddenly the motor does the same work, with half the electricity, without heating? Hmmm... need more info. I searched and all I found was one other copy of this same article. They sure have been keeping their project quiet for 14 years.

Chuck has a
> patent pending on his invention, a trade mark
> on the name and a U.L.
> approval.

DAR
Most quack devices have or can easily get those three things. Since he has a patent pending he doesn't need to be secretive about it any more.

> John Iander: This looks already to sell.
>
> Chuck Larue: Yeah it is, it's ready to go.
>
> John Iander: How much?
>
> Chuck Larue: $49.95
>
> So you'd pay for the Power Saver in under a
> year. Chuck says he has 10,000
> of these devices headed here from a
> manufacturing plant in Korea. Now all he
> has to do is find a retailer willing to sell
> it.

DAR
If it worked, and doesn't in any way damage the equipment you hook it up to, then he won't have any trouble selling it. Actually, let me correct that. People are so gullible, even if it doesn't work, he probably won't have any trouble selling it. They can put it along side the fuelsaver magnets and cell phone antenna boosters. "As seen on TV."

> Chuck says he has tried to interest the
> Governor and the utilities
> commission to sponsor his invention, but no one
> has called him back.

DAR
This is a standard quack/conspiracy claim. The government is conspiraing to make us use more electricity.
Hard to say for sure without more info but I would give this a VERY low probability of being true. Less than 1%.

D.

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

Can't say one way or the other, but it might be legit if what the machine does keeps the motor from throwing off waste heat. Heat is wasted electricity. I don't know how it could - I mean reducing waste heat in lighting took designing a totally new kind of lamp (fluorescent - and the LEDs are even better) rather than attaching a gizmo to an incandescent - but that doesn't mean it couldn't. I do know that using incandescent bulbs rated for 130 instead of 120 volts slightly lowered the electricity usage (only a few percent), but almost doubled the life of the bulb. Maybe it works something like that (still casts into doubt the significant reduction in power used). If I had a spare $50, which I don't, I wouldn't mind trying it, just to see.

[Dardedar]

If I had a spare $50, which I don't, I wouldn't mind trying it, just to see.

DAR
I did a little more checking and found this response:

"This goes back to a NASA patent from the '70's. Nothing new. I suspect
his 'patent pending' depends upon some minor new quirk or its simply an
'application' and won't get any further. It's been on the market in
many different forms, by many manufacturers. It does work, but savings
depends highly upon the application. Best for a long-running lightly
loaded motor - in many cases it doesn't provide any ROI, in fact no
savings if the motor is sized properly in the first place. I've seen it
for less. I believe the same technology is already built into many
high-end appliances.

Here's the same thing:

http://www.powerefficiencycorp.com/
http://smservice.com/pwrcomm.htm
http://mlmvs.trustpass.alibaba.com/prod ... r_Saver.ht
ml

Usually [nothing] more than just power factor compensating capacitors.

LINK

DAR
I inserted the word "nothing" in that last sentence because I think the fellow forgot it.
So now it all makes sense. There was a big increase in the efficiency of fridges about ten years ago. I bet these sort of things are already built into home devices that have motors running a lot (like fridges). And remember the claim is only for motors.

I found this observation at the above link too:

IIRC, all it really does is reduce the applied voltage. Magic is in
figuring how far - I'm pretty sure it's looking at the power factor.
Early devices had a problem with motor starting; uP controlled devices
probably handle this better.

I recall seeing a display of one of these devices in a hardware store.
It had a motor running, and a power meter display, and you could switch
in the 'power saving' device. Very dramatic, fabulous power reduction.
The motor was running with no load...

D.

[LaWood]

We are using our first flourescent light bulbs. Sam's Wholesale is selling a pack of 8 for $12.14 (aver = $1.52 bulb). Ours are the 60W equivalent by GE. Each replacement bulb consumes 13 watts each. Except for the brief glow-up period so far so good. Look kinda funny in a ceiling fan fixture. Adverstised life is 8000 hours or an average of 5 years.

I'm waiting for the full colour spectrum screw-in flourescents to arrive. Full colour flourescence been around for aquarium use for 30 years. Shouldn't be a problem to add the additional gases to a small screw in bulb.

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

The ones in the ceiling fan may not last as long, especially if your ceiling fan vibrates visibly. I don't know why, but movement seems to shorten the life of the flourescents. So does lousy wiring and really moist areas like bathrooms. I don't know if it's that incandescents are more forgiving or if their lifespan was so short that shortening it further wasn't that noticible. On the other hand, I've had 2 compacts in my den for about 6 years now. As things burn out I've replaced them, so at this point only the bathroom and two spare rooms have incandescents in them. Possibly what's out now is a "new generation" that can handle moisture, but I'm hesitant to put them back in my bathrooms because they are a bit too expensive to replace every 6 months.

As to the "magic motor" gizmo, I should have figured that's what's in my energy star refrigerator making it an energy star.

[Doug]

The ones in the ceiling fan may not last as long, especially if your ceiling fan vibrates visibly. I don't know why, but movement seems to shorten the life of the flourescents. So does lousy wiring and really moist areas like bathrooms. I don't know if it's that incandescents are more forgiving or if their lifespan was so short that shortening it further wasn't that noticible. On the other hand, I've had 2 compacts in my den for about 6 years now. As things burn out I've replaced them, so at this point only the bathroom and two spare rooms have incandescents in them. Possibly what's out now is a "new generation" that can handle moisture, but I'm hesitant to put them back in my bathrooms because they are a bit too expensive to replace every 6 months.

As to the "magic motor" gizmo, I should have figured that's what's in my energy star refrigerator making it an energy star.

Having the bulb inside a container, such as glass, may also shorten the bulb life.

[Dardedar]

I use them where ever I can and have about 14 of them around the house (quick rough count). Some are even outside spotlights. I don't think I have ever had one fail yet. Maybe one.

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

I've had them fail in the bathrooms and in ceiling fans, but nowhere else. And that was about 8 years ago. We didn't even have the corkscrew type then. I've put them back in my ceiling fan (this one doesn't visibly vibrate) as of about 3 months ago and they are still doing fine. I haven't chanced the bathroom yet, but I will soon. They really are as convienent as the incandescents these days. I live alone and am relatively frugal anyway, so I don't know how much difference they make in my electric bill, but I know others who say the compacts have cut their electric bills by a third or more. (Of course, one pair of those folks just moved into a house with an above-ground swimming pool - which they want to give away to anyone who'll haul it off, any takers? - and a hot tub and just went bug-eyed at their first electric bill.)