Does the product at Plugandsave.com REALLY work??

[IN Hawaii]

Well we have just installed one of Martins units. As we live in Hawaii and our power here sucks. Having large swings and spikes in it daily. We will see if ths device helps out any.
Seeing as our Monthly bill is around 1000 dollars. It will show up better than most.

Talk you you all next month after the bill comes in, and I will post a few more months as well. I dont expect to see a 40% drop, but do most likely expect to see more then the 10 to 15% they say is possible in the US market. This is due mostly in part to not having the large stable grid the mainland US has. Time will tell.

Aloha for now

[Unregistered]

For anyone who wants to know more, check out the wikipedia page for Power Factor.

Also, here's a great article: Can improving Power Factor help your Energy Bill? | mapawatt
(Summary: Used properly, it can save you approximately 4 cents over 15 years.)

These devices can, in principle, reduce your apparent power usage (see the article) but since the electric company only bills your real power usage, it doesn't make a difference to your bill, except for resistance losses, which amount to 4 cents over 15 years for a major appliance.

[Unregistered]

I have opened one, and inside there is ONLY a huge capacitor, and a fuse.
The fuse is actually the most useful part, otherwise you could end up with your house on fire.
Just watch this YouTube recording:
YouTube - Exploding capacitor

Looks pretty scary, and this is only a SMALL capacitor!!!

The capacitor 'smoothes' the 'spiked' sinusoidal shape of the AC power, removing the spikes.

Using integral calculus these spikes are extremely small in occupied space (i.e. : energy), and are realistically a VERY small part of the whole sinusoidal waveform.

Actually the unit is literally just a Powersurge supressor, nothing more, nothing less.

A powersurge capacitor of 1 Farad (capacity is expressed in Farad, like temperature is expressed in Celcius) can be had on eBay for about 45 British Pounds.....

So, a plug&save unit that cost 350 euro, well, quite a good profit for a just a silly Powersurge protector and a fuse....

Like Martin says: The powergrid in the USA is a piece of shitty mess, with loads of spikes (because of the low voltage (i.e. HIGH currents), 110 VAC vc 240 VAC in europe,
quite a difference.

Nothing personal against Martin, he looks like a nice chap, but I wish he started with naming his product 'Powersurge suppressor', and second: he shouldn't give this 30% energy-savings anymore. It's simply a overstatement, to say it nicely.

BTW: I hold a masterdegree in electrical engineering, nothing fancy, but at least I know what I'm talking about.

Yours truly
tulipman

Hello everybody
Tulipman says that 1F capacitor costs on eBay £45.But he not says that for £45 you can get 1F DC capacitor.As I think,plugandsave company uses AC capacitors,which is more more expensive if compare with DC capacitors.Just please go and check on eBay for AC 100uf 400V motor run capacitors,which costs about £30 each.And for Tulipman -AC capacitor 1F=1000000uF and it cost more than £45
Good luck for everybody