Mains optimiser - Saves you £££??

stevehead

From the Website - whadda you reckon?

CUT ENERGY COSTS WITHOUT CHANGING YOUR LIFESTYLE
There’s a new energy saving product, VPhase, available to householders and small businesses in the UK right now!


Large businesses have been benefiting from voltage optimisation for years, saving huge sums of money
by reducing their energy consumption. Now available for homes and small businesses in a simple low
cost product, VPhase.


The unique VPhase product optimises the incoming voltage to a constant 220V giving householders
immediate and significant energy savings for the whole home with a single VPhase. Fitted to the consumer unit.

Here they are
http://www.vphase.com/

borders_dude

Pity you aint on a commission, that was a good sales pitch.:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

stokefan

i dont see how this will save money, the voltage isnt what costs, its the current, amps.

and all appliances will draw the same current as they need to run anyway,

stevehead

stokefan wrote: »

i dont see how this will save money, the voltage isnt what costs, its the current, amps.

and all appliances will draw the same current as they need to run anyway,

I can't really see it either. Lights get dimmer, heaters on thermostats run a bit longer - it's not really something for nothing, is it?
Maybe saves on some transformer losses?
Anyone care to advocate why this would work?

jimexbox

stevehead wrote: »

I can't really see it either. Lights get dimmer, heaters on thermostats run a bit longer - it's not really something for nothing, is it?
Maybe saves on some transformer losses?
Anyone care to advocate why this would work?

Reading some early news articles it doesn't seem like a 'free energy' made up wonder product, although I'm not an electrical engineer. I would like to see independent tests to authenticate any possible savings.

uptomyeyeballs

:rotfl:

stokefan wrote: »

i dont see how this will save money, the voltage isnt what costs, its the current, amps.

and all appliances will draw the same current as they need to run anyway,

power = IV watts ?

If the system reduces the voltage and keeps the current the same (don't know if this is possible) it will reduce the power used.

BonandDom

(Voltage Optimisation is a particularly effective means of saving energy in the UK, because there is a national problem of over-voltage. The declared electricity supply in the United Kingdom is now, as a result of European Harmonisation in 1995, 230V with a tolerance of +10% to -10%.
This means that supply voltage can theoretically be anywhere between 207V and 253V depending on local conditions. However, the average voltage supplied from the national grid (in mainland UK) is 242V [1], compared to the (nominal) average European voltage of 220V. (The average supply voltage in Northern Ireland is around 239V, and 235V in the Republic of Ireland [2].) Therefore, most electrical equipment manufactured for Europe and the UK is rated at 220V and may operate satisfactorily at voltages down to 200V [3]. By efficiently bringing supply voltages to the lower end of the statutory voltage range, voltage optimisation technology could yield average energy savings of around 13%.)

Quote from Wikipedia.

Hubby sells these (well not these - but similar product) to small/medium/large sized businesses as an off shot from his power factor correction business and says yes they can save money.

However, the cost may be prohibitive for domestic users, who may not see the benfits quoted. 13% of a domestic £100 a month bill is only £13.00, therefore would take just under two years to cover the cost. (and that does not cover the cost of installation).

Andy_Davies

jimexbox wrote: »

Reading some early news articles it doesn't seem like a 'free energy' made up wonder product, although I'm not an electrical engineer. I would like to see independent tests to authenticate any possible savings.

It's US focused but basically draws the conclusion they aren't worth the money in a domestic situation

http://powerelectronics.com/power_management/motor_power_management/power-factor-correction-0507/

BonandDom

There is a vast difference between power factor correction (which is cost prohibitive in a domestic situation) and voltage optimistation.

Voltage optimisation units are 'good' for ten years, so there is a long term financial benefit to be had. However do not forget the installation costs to add and more than likely NEDL (or whoever your supplier is) will need to switch your power of for this.

These are relatively new in the domestic market, hubby said if we had £299 spare (as if:o) he would get one for here as our electricicty bills are massive.

Cardew

BonandDom wrote: »

(
However, the cost may be prohibitive for domestic users, who may not see the benfits quoted. 13% of a domestic £100 a month bill is only £13.00, therefore would take just under two years to cover the cost. (and that does not cover the cost of installation).

Whoa!

The claims that voltage optimisation could save 13% overall by savings on appliances is far from proven by independant tests, although there will be undoubtedly some savings.

Bear in mind that these savings are only for appliances that can run on lower voltages.

However if someone has a £100 a month electricity bill, then much of that will be for heating.

Ohms law still applies to heating!!, so drop the mains voltage(which is all the optimiser does) and you drop the heat output.

So your electrical heater will give out less heat, your kettle take longer to boil, the immersion heater in the HW tank take longer to heat the water, your electric shower have a lower flow rate etc etc.

Even on appliances that heat - eg washing machine, dryer, dishwasher etc the heating part of the cycle will still consume the same power, the heating phase will last longer. e.g. if a washing machine uses 0.6kWh on a cycle, 0.5kWh might be for heating the water to, say, 60C and use 0.1kWh for the motor. Whatever the voltage, it will still take 0.5kWh to heat that water, just it will take a little longer. There could be marginal savings on the 0.1kWh.

So to talk of £13 a month saving on a £100 bill is frankly nonsense.

parody

I own shares in this company so may be a little biased, but I believe they claim 10% savings on the average bill, and this is already considering that some circuits will not save as much power. The VX1 automatically optimises the voltage on selected circuits, and I believe the claims are based on that. In addition there are other components in the heating system that will benefit if not the heating coil itself - it may even be more efficient for a heating element to run slightly longer on a lower voltage (i'm not an electrician, but do remember efficiency being related to power on a basic level).

So don't knock it by by making assumptions. This device is about to be trialed with scotish and southern energy for Ofgem certification, has won numerous awards and is a proven idea already benefitting many commercial premesis. The difference here is making it available for the domestic market.

From what I have read the payback for investment for the average domestic user is meant to be the same as loft insulation (2 years). Now thats not bad for something which you can install and forget about. If this made it into new build homes and even a small % of homeowners purchase one (particularly those with no gas supply) the CO2 savings could be enormous, which to me is a very simple and straight forward way of helping save the planet, and a few quid at the same time.

Time will tell from the trials, but to me it looks like a no-brainer.

Cardew wrote: »

Whoa!

The claims that voltage optimisation could save 13% overall by savings on appliances is far from proven by independant tests, although there will be undoubtedly some savings.

Bear in mind that these savings are only for appliances that can run on lower voltages.

However if someone has a £100 a month electricity bill, then much of that will be for heating.

Ohms law still applies to heating!!, so drop the mains voltage(which is all the optimiser does) and you drop the heat output.

So your electrical heater will give out less heat, your kettle take longer to boil, the immersion heater in the HW tank take longer to heat the water, your electric shower have a lower flow rate etc etc.

Even on appliances that heat - eg washing machine, dryer, dishwasher etc the heating part of the cycle will still consume the same power, the heating phase will last longer. e.g. if a washing machine uses 0.6kWh on a cycle, 0.5kWh might be for heating the water to, say, 60C and use 0.1kWh for the motor. Whatever the voltage, it will still take 0.5kWh to heat that water, just it will take a little longer. There could be marginal savings on the 0.1kWh.

So to talk of £13 a month saving on a £100 bill is frankly nonsense.