And if the "capacitor trick" did work, would this not be theft? lh
On Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 12:05 PM, Chuck Kelsey <wb2...@roadrunner.com>wrote: > > > "Like a bad penny, this "urban legend" just keeps coming back." -- Eric > Lemmon. > > Yes, I agree. However, the post that I made (and started all of this again) > > didn't make claim as to whether the "capacitor trick" worked or didn't > work. > I feel that it has no impact, unless you are being billed for reactive > demand, and most of us are not. > > I was simply trying to seek out an individual whom I believe posted about > this here, some time ago. He insisted that his electric bill at, I believe, > > three repeater sites as well as his house, dropped considerably when he > added a fixed value capacitor across the line. Again, I had serious doubts > at the time, but he was adamant about it. Anyway, my recent post was to > follow up on this guy. What triggered it was the fact that I just ran into > a > ham who had purchased one of the commercially available "energy savers" and > > was questioning it's performance (he didn't think it worked). I asked him > if > the utility meter was electronic or whether it was one of the old spinning > disk units, to which he said "electronic." I had posed the question about > altering the PF to an electrical engineer that I know. He gave me all the > engineering basis like I'd expected, but then added an interesting comment. > > He was uncertain if a spinning disk meter would remain accurate if the PF > was forced way out of specification - he left that hint of doubt. He then > said that he was certain that the newer, electronic meters would record > accurately regardless of the PF. > > Now, the guy that was adamant about "beating the system" had indicated that > > in every one of his "experiments" the meter was the older spinning disk > unit. I suspect that the utility company eventually came out and replaced > the meters. The guy said that it made a big enough difference that the > utility had contacted him about the drop in usage. > > So, maybe the guy was jerking me (us) around, or maybe the utility > installed > new meters and the "savings" went "poof," or maybe the guy is sitting in > jail, not able to respond. And maybe it was on a different Yahoo group and > I'm experiencing brain fade. > > I certainly didn't intend to create all the hubbub. But I felt the need to > jump back in and explain further. > > Chuck > WB2EDV > > >
