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Smoke and mirrors, or the real deal?

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 02/22/2008 - 22:10.

I have been asked to install a KVAR power saving unit at my business. will this really work? Any input would be great!

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Re: Smoke and mirrors, or the real deal?

Submitted by ben on Sat, 02/23/2008 - 04:42.
Hrm, do you mean this: http://www.kvarhydrosave.com ?

This is the first time I've heard of these devices, but from what I've read, they do seem to be legit. Homes don't need them because most new-ish appliances have these sorts of capacitors already built in. They are mostly used for big industry where the power requirements are so high that it makes financial sense. I would be very surprised if you could save any money by using something like this.

The company also seems to be a bit sketchy if you ask me, they can't seem to explain how their own device works. This is from their website:

The KVAR KV-Amp Reducers reduce the amount of power drawn from the utility supplier by storing in its capacitors otherwise lost electricity (watts) caused by the inductive motors in your business or home. (Some examples of inductive motors are heating units, air-conditioning units, refrigerators, freezers, office equipment, exhaust fans, computers, printers, almost all electronics, washers, dryers, dishwashers, pumps of all kinds, vacuum cleaners, compressors, hot tubs, humidifiers, dehumidifies, fans, etc.) The technology applied by a KVAR KV-Amp Reducer supplies that stored electricity back to your inductive loads, thus causing you to decrease your demand from the utility supplier. If you decrease your demand from the utility, your meter slows down, you use less electricity and you save money. You pay dearly for that electricity, why pay for it and waste it when you can pay for it, store it, and reuse it again. This whole process is called power factor optimization. (Visual description: Electricity comes into your business and home very much like a wave pool. With the KVAR KV-Amp Reducer it calms the waves to a nice flat surface. High electrical bills are caused by very high-waves created by all the motors. A huge wave comes in even when the motor only needs a portion of it. The rest of the wave is wasted! If you lower the waves you save money and can relax on a gently rippling pool. High efficiency products/appliances help to create smaller waves as well, and the KVAR KV-Amp Reducer helps level those waves out even further. The energy efficiency of your entire business or home is up to 98% waveless with a KVAR KV-Amp Reducer installed)
Here's what is actually going on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_factor
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Re: Smoke and mirrors, or the real deal?

Submitted by Brad F (not verified) on Wed, 02/27/2008 - 18:22.

The vendor you linked is a snake oil saleman. While power factor correction capacitors can save demand charges for industrial/commercial customers (IF the customer is billed based on kVA demand and not kW demand), this vendor is claiming that installing one of their units on a residential service will save "10-25%". Residential customers are invariably billed based on kWh only, so the power factor of the load is immaterial and there are no savings to be had.

To the original post, the question to be asked is: "Am I billed on kW demand or kVA demand?" It is best to ask your utility, if your bill is not clear. If you are billed on kVA demand, then, in order to understand how much savings are available, you need to find out the power factor at your peak load. If someone wants to sell you capacitors to correct your power factor, then they should be able to measure your power factor, recommend a properly sized system, and predict your monthly savings. Someone who can do this is NOT a snake oil salesman. If you are billed on kW demand, there's no advantage to installing capacitors.

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