electrical voltage regulator energy saving thingamabob

accountingbod

Hi

I was listening to radio 4 yesterday and on one of the shows they were talking about a voltage regulator that regulates a steady flow of energy in to the home. Aparently this saves money as it avoids too much energy being received ie. instead of anywhere between 210-250v it is regulated at 220v or whatever the standard is. It doesnt work on thermostatic devices i dont think, just regular sockets and lights...

Has anyone got one of these? I am interested in such a product if it saves money and the payback is not too great.

One of the statements made yesterday was that the government would welcome discussion on this and that this tech would meet green credentials so another thought is that it may be subisidised at some point in the future.

penrhyn

I believe some savings may be achieved with motorised appliances like fridges and freezers. Power hungry devices heaters, cookers, electric kettles won't use less power.

Notmyrealname

As above. It MAY work on some domestic motorised devices but really it is typically only beneficial for stuff that uses 3 phase.

You cannot force electricity into a device. It will take what it wants and no more.

Basic Ohms Law P=IxV. P is Power in Watts, I is Current and V is voltage.

So if you have a device such as a Plasma TV that uses 300W, at 210V it'll draw 300/210 or 1.43A. If the voltage rises to 240V it'll draw 1.25A but it will still draw 300W and your electricity is metered in kWh.

In short it'll regulate the voltage but in doing so will also consume energy itself but it won't save you any money.

fwor

There was a long, long thread on this here last year, and the conclusion was pretty much in line with the last reply.

There are some industrial/commercial applications where these and similar devices can pay back quite quickly, but sadly the ones that say they will work for a domestic user are not (IMO) credible.

accountingbod

Thanks everyone
I can now move my mind on to more useful considerations then...

spenderdave

I found a report done in 2009 by Ofgem which did 60 installations and monitored the savings. It claimed typical savings of around 5%, way below the 13% or whatever mentioned in YouAndYours.

For most things, like heating and kettles, they will take longer to heat and consume the same (or probably slightly more) doing so. There is a saving with incandescent lights, but they will be dimmer, and low energy bulbs, more plentiful now than at the time of that study, will show no saving whatsoever. There may well have been savings, but it is not known whether the homeowners sat in cold, dimly lit, houses as a result.

Good for large industry with loads of heavy motors, marginal benefit for most homeowners. Pity the YouAndYours item was so one sided.

spannerzone

Also many items have switched mode power supplies which can work over a wide voltage range so reducing the voltage won't make any difference - TV's, Satelite/freeview boxes, computers, monitors, many phone chargers, etc -