Electricity Saving Boxes, scam or not?

[Tarragonrookie]

Hi all,

Am I correct in assuming these devices are a scam from outside UK to get people to part with money for an unsafe device that is as effective as a chocolate fire guard. Or, do they actually work ?

No, I am not drunk, just curios for a view from the many experts out there.

Thank you.

 

[RF Lighting]

What's an electricity saving box?

Ye cannae change the laws of physics.

 

[JohnW2]

Am I correct in assuming these devices are a scam ...

Yes

... from outside UK ...

Not necessarily - we have plenty of home-grown scammers.

... for an unsafe device that is as effective as a chocolate fire guard.

Not necessarily unsafe (although some may well but) but certainly ineffective. Other than generating it yourself (e.g.solar), the only way of saving electricity costs is to use less of it - which means less heating, less hot water, less dry clothes, less use of electronic equipment or whatever. Something for nothing just doesn't work - the laws of physics say so.

Kind Regards, John

 

[JohnW2]

What's an electricity saving box?

That's one of the good questions - a good few don't even say! The most (in)famous of those which do are just voltage reducers.

Ye cannae change the laws of physics.

Quite so.

Kind REgards, John

 

[ban-all-sheds]

But you can get threatened with eviction from the Ideal Home Show if you hang around the stand of a charlatan selling them, pointing out that ye cannae change the laws of physics.

 

[Adam_151]

http://www.bigclive.com/power.htm

 

[westie101]

At least one large solar seller/installer is putting these in as a matter of course.
The last on I came across was boosting the voltage rather than reducing it

The supplier? Well look at my location and it is the DNO/supplier just to the north of us! (who might end up in a separate country)

 

[JohnW2]

At least one large solar seller/installer is putting these in as a matter of course. ... The last on I came across was boosting the voltage rather than reducing it

Ah - was that based on some argument relating to 'less current for the same power', I wonder?

Kind Regards, John

 

[JohnW2]

But you can get threatened with eviction from the Ideal Home Show if you hang around the stand of a charlatan selling them, pointing out that ye cannae change the laws of physics.

I can believe it - is this personal experience speaking?

Kind Regards, John

 

[mattylad]

These might be better:

 

[ban-all-sheds]

But you can get threatened with eviction from the Ideal Home Show if you hang around the stand of a charlatan selling them, pointing out that ye cannae change the laws of physics.

I can believe it - is this personal experience speaking?

Yup.

 

[eveares]

I would no so much call it a Energy saving box, just more a Energy alteration (PF/Induction corrector) box; and for the ones where you plug an appliance in, many just work by reducing voltage and current draw on restistive loads and thus reduce the total power. (P = V X I)

Also consumer grade meters measure resistive and not inductive loads.

After all many inductive loads already have circuitry to accommodate for things like phase correction, Power factor correction, etc...

Also: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15984990

 

[ericmark]

I remember fitting a row of 110 volt florescent fittings at 60w each 25 in all in a long chamber and they tripped the 16A MCB.

On testing they were using around 20 amp so I swapped the auto transformer tapping to 127 volt instead of 110 volt and with no visible reduction in light go the current down to 15A and this is what the auto switching auto transformer does.

However since those days the switched mode power supply has come onto the market so today that would no longer work.

 

[bernardgreen]

There are two main types.

[1] a plug with a lamp that plugs into any socket and reduces consumption through out the entire house. BIG SCAM

[2] a complex box that connects between the CU and one of the circuits in the house. These do reduce the voltage on that circuit and with resistive loads there may be a saving in current consumed on that circuit due to the lower voltage. But lights may be a bit dimmer and many appliances with switched mode power supplies will take more current to compensate for the lower voltages.
These boxes can only cope with a small load ( less than one or two kilowatts ) and the better ones will switch themselves out when overloaded. The cheaper ones just get hot and melt out.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

[2] a complex box that connects between the CU and one of the circuits in the house. These do reduce the voltage on that circuit and with resistive loads there may be a saving in current consumed on that circuit due to the lower voltage.

But if that resistive load is a cooker or a kettle or a toaster or an iron or a space heater or a heater in a hot water cylinder, dishwasher or washing machine, or a griddle or a waffle maker or a panini toaster, or a soldering iron, or a hair drier, or or or or or or or or or, no reduction in your electricity bill.