Thanks for this paper Joel! It was very timely. Just this week, one of my commercial customers (a grocery store chain) asked me about "a power factor gizmo that their greeting card vendor was trying to sell them". I politely explained that the energy conservation industry had serious doubts about such black boxes to which they replied "don't you think this person would be wary of selling something that would jeopardize his key business". I told them that from I've seen such devices are always sold by non-tech savvy people who truly believe in their product then printed this paper off with the pertinent comments highlighted and gave it to them. I still don't think they caught the irony of the Greeting Card vendor was selling this.
While were on the subject of magic boxes. Watch the top video in below link. On the residential and commercial installs he tells you to watch the power factor (which does improve) but at the top of the meter you also see kW which they do not highlight. You'll have to pause the video to catch it but it hilarious that they think no one is going to. It doubles for the car wash and goes up by a factor of 20 for the house! See if you can pick out any other irregularities. I'm not an EE but looks like some funny business to me. Maybe someone can explain it because I can't http://www.power-save1200.com/1200.html Best, Travis Creswell Ozark Energy Services -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Joel Davidson Sent: Monday, April 06, 2009 8:54 PM To: RE-wrenches Subject: [RE-wrenches] Energy Savings - What is Real? It frustrating to work on a customer's RE system and have to tell them that they are being bamboozled by sales pitches for so-called energy saving devices. You might want to share this paper with your customers. The latest Association of Energy Engineers (AEE) quarterly Energy Engineering Journal has an paper titled "Power Quality Solutions and Energy Savings - What is Real?" See http://www.plantservices.com/wp_downloads/pdf/0903_Power_Quality.pdf "The problem is that some of these solution providers have significantly overstated the savings and the customers are deceived. What these solutions provide excellent protection, they often provide very little, if any, energy savings." Joel Davidson _______________________________________________ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: [email protected] Options & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.557 / Virus Database: 270.11.43/2043 - Release Date: 4/6/2009 6:22 AM No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.557 / Virus Database: 270.11.52/2053 - Release Date: 4/10/2009 6:27 PM _______________________________________________ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: [email protected] Options & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org
