Whole house power saver box install. I need your help!

[kctyphoon]

just to add- from what ive read, people with older appliances and hvac systems seem to show the best gains from these, as the newer, high efficiency appliances and hvac motors already have capicators installed in them, which is one reason they are more efficient to begin with. i did my install myself also - electricians are charging obscene prices to install these from what i hear. i was told though that they should occupy the first breakers on either the left or right side of the panel.

[kctyphoon]

the best way to test this is really just to leave it alone, and compare your bills.. i have one in my house after doing a ton of research. basically what you'll find is the people that claim it doesnt work- give reasons why it wont, but dont own one, but the people that actually have one installed have the paperwork to show that they experiece a drop in their bills. homes with

[nascarusa1]

esspeajay (quote) "also the white wire is not a ground, it is a neutral. It is dangerous to mistake it for a ground, and it can only be terminated on the ground bar under very specific circumstances, and many times cannot. leave it to professionals" At the service panel the neutral bus bar is bonded to the ground. Only time it isn't is in sub-panels.

[esspeajay]

Also, and more importantly, you need to use a two pole breaker instead of individual single pole breakers. otherwise you might put both ungrounded (hot) conductors on the same phase thereby making the two wires to work as if they where spliced together giving a voltage to the box of 120v instead of the 220v, or 208v, (depending on your service). You should remove this video IMHO. It is dangerously incorrect.

[esspeajay]

It is irresponsible for a novice to give electrical advice. I am a master electrician, and you have made very dangerous mistakes. Your installation has several serious code violations. most important is the lack of connectors where you removed the knockouts. also the white wire is not a ground, it is a neutral. It is dangerous to mistake it for a ground, and it can only be terminated on the ground bar under very specific circumstances, and many times cannot. leave it to professionals.

[daddy431963]

Yeah it looks you need to stay away from any future electrical work, wire nuts in the panel is a code violation.

[SMILES2GO]

Save money EVERYWAY and EVERYDAY on my channel SMILES2GO

[SMILES2GO]

The power saver is a waster due to the fact that it is consuming energy all the time.I have tested this same unit and unless it is used with a PLC(programmable logic controller) and a powerline carrier monitor unit,it will cost you.It does work if you make it part of a smart system.If anyone is interested in a whole house smart system that uses power factor,plc,and powerline carrier technology

[jswain19]

It increases power factor of AC units, refridge, dryer, washer, ect.

Your work looks like sh!t. You seem like a good handy man, but when you post stuff like this online for the average guy, your going to get some poor shmuck killed.

Leave this work for licensed people. A handy box? and you use a torch for pvc when you could of used UL listed liquid-tite all the way to the panel. This whole installation is so wrong and illegal.

Folks take not on how NOT to install one of these

[jswain19]

This guy has no business installing this in his 200 amp Circuit Breaker Panel, not "fuse box". Anyone that does not have a license or years of experience installing electrical work should avoid this.

It only takes 5 milliamps to stop a human heart. More homeowners each year are killed from electrical installations they do themselves through shock or fire.

The "Power Saver" is a capacitor that charges and discharges electricity. It is mainly used for motor applications in your house.

[joehawk7]

Hi Pete, There is a valid argument about apparent power (which we are not charged for). What I would like to see is ... does the electric company meter spin fewer times with this device for the same load and test time. If you are really seeing 20-30% savings, seeing the change in electric company meter speed should be obvious.

Joe

[PawnProphet]

Pete, The box is a capacitor which can interact with inductive loads to affect the current draw. Unfortunately most electric meters on houses do not measure this current draw, but the actual kilowatts. On larger commercial installation the utilities charge for power factor (the amount of excess amps drawn by inductive loads), but not on houses. Should see very little improvement in your bill.

[justfishingknox]

Hey Pete. Here's a link for a company with a similiar product that has a vid of some testing that was compared before and after adding in the device and how they did it. Some of it is similiar to your hot water tests vid, and some different.

power-save1200(dot)com/3400.ht­ml

Hope that helps and I look forward to what you come up with.

Thx again for your testing! :)

[justfishingknox]

Hey Pete - you're awesome dude!! You're testing exactly the kind of stuff I'm into and wanting to know about. I'll be eagerly waiting to know what you find out. Let us know... :)

[davidrrrd]

Pete it just occurred to me there's something your new toy might be good for.

i was just wondering if say someone had solar panels and did not want to grid tie,

they instead buy a modified sign wave inverter, but find some things did not run on it well,

the question therefor is:

can the power saver capacitor pack clean up the square wave into something more things will run on?

[fanman1981]

HELLO THE EASIEST WAY I THINK TO TEST THIS IS TO GET ONE OF THOSE KILL-O-WATT METERS THAT GIVES YOU ALL KIND OF READINGS AMPS, VOLTS, HERTZ AND OTHER JUNK PLUG A MOTOR DEVICE IN WHEN UNITS BREAKER'S ARE OFF GET THE READING THEN TURN UNITS BREAKER ON AND YOU SHOULD GET DIFFERENT READINGS THIS DEVICE FROM WHAT I UNDERSTAND JUST WORKS ON MOTOR LOADS IN YOUR HOME BUT WITH ENERGY SAVING APPLIANCES YOU WON'T SAVE MUCH THIS IS MORE OF A COMMERCIAL BUILDING UNIT FOR A/C AND MACHINES BUT LET ME KNOW!!

[stpensaw86]

that intro sucks balls

[vawt1953]

turn off all the fuse's with only the power coming in, have the power saver off also, use your clap meter around 1 side of the 200 amps it should read 0, then turn on only power saver and see how many amps the power saver runs at. I will bet it takes in 1.8 to 1.9 amps. these units only help if you have an inductive load on them all the time. try running only the A/c on and check the unit off and unit on you will see a difference.

[govinda1pk]

Cool video :) That looks awesome :)

[GateMessenger]

I'm no expert but from what I understand, have one connected to my 52 gallon electric water heater, the device does not actually save money. What it does is when the electric company is at peak usage the device temporarily shuts down the power to my water heater so to ease the strain on the power company. By doing so keeps the cost per kilowatt at a low rate. This saves money for everyone connected to the grid not just one house. The best way to save power is to unplug things when not in use.

[GateMessenger]

.. Hooking one of these power saver to your entire house would only cause havoc if it were to shut down during peak usage. I don't think the power savers were meant to be hooked up to an entire house.

[mixcatcom]

@GateMessenger This one is made to hook to the entire house.

Thanks for the comments.

-Pete

[davidrrrd]

pete you clip an amp meter on each leg of your incoming power lines. and do the 1 hour suggestion someone made with saver on and saver off.

of coarse with your air cond. on as well as motors elsewhere in your home on for the 2 hours of your test.

[mixcatcom]

@davidrrrd Yeah that's the only way I was thinking too..

I was trying to think of another way but I don't think there is any,

Thanks so much.

-Pete

[TXCoindigger]

Hey Pete I wouldnt expect a super great change but its kewl you are giving it a try. Listen what I would suggest is taking the last 2-3 months kw usage and average and then take the next 2-3 months with the device kw usage average and compare. Just a suggestion buddy. Good luck.

[mixcatcom]

@TXCoindigger Thanks for the ideas.. Im going to do that to show everyone the savings. Thanks so much for the ideas.

-Pete

[Cuyanausul]

I would suggest making the test for at least one hour

[elalis]

Turn everything off in the house and go check your wattage meter over 1 minute when you switch the computer on. Make sure you have a furmark benchmark running to use the full potential of your Psu. First test it with the power saver box off, get that readout over 1 minute. Then turn the power saver on, run the same test on your pc and check the result over a minute. Subract on versus off and there is your saving..:) Just a suggestion..:)

[shartne]

I have read about these before and I was considering buying one let me know if this helps.

[wanderingeyes11]

sometimes i wish i was that smart....i just watch these videos in aw that he knows so much about everything....i mean everything.

[Richmunnich]

I think that's the one they keep sending me e-mails about. Does that work on the 220 circuits too? Just the whole house in general. I'm looking for some thing to cut down the power consumption on the space heaters. I only use air conditioning for the two worst months of summer (July and August). The rest of the time it don't get that hot that long to even bother with air con. It would if I were running forced air, though as there is a two phase electric induction motor in the blower. hmmm

[H2O2FromH20]

If I understand correctly, they work on Inductive loads, So Turn on every moter in the house, Open the refrigerator door, start the dryer, turn on every fan, and make the AC unit stay on. then go out and time how fast the disk spins on the meter. Time one revolution then time ten. Less time means more power used. then flip the breaker for the unit and repeat the timing again. It should slow down.

[H2O2FromH20]

Yes I too would love to see the inside of the unit, Video and Close up stills showing the word and numbers on the componets.

To see if it is reducing power consumption, I would Learn to reed your meter, hopefully it a digital meter. Run for 2 to 3 days with and without. keeping detailed reading of the meter. then Determin when your meter cycle starts and turn the unit on that day for a one mounth test. compare that month with last years reading.

[speedbrew]

First time I saw those boxes I laughed. My first thought is SCAM! But What I really want to know is whats inside the box. I would guess just a capacitor.

Is it possible to open it. Then we can get a understanding of how it works.

Also the only way I can think to test it is by your power bill. or take your own reading from your house meter under controlled conditions.