Energy saving scams

winkers

Is the Voltex energy saving gadget a scam?

Cardew

In short Yes!

Over the years there have been dozens of these Power Factor Correction devices marketed in both the UK and USA. usually for a couple of pounds. In a domestic situation they will save you nothing/zero/zilch.

Given the Government's emphasis on energy saying, wouldn't they give such devices away for free if they saved anything?

Google 'Power factor correction devices' if you want a technical explanation

ST2

Who can I report 'Voltex' to in the UK - it's illegal what they are claiming for their 'gagdet' isn't it?

Hasbeen

ST2 said:

Who can I report 'Voltex' to in the UK - it's illegal what they are claiming for their 'gagdet' isn't it?

Its an ad, only the gullible fall for it. Not illegal. It appears to be a swiss company so report there about the "Gagdet"? 

Ectophile

Advertising Standards Authority if they are advertising. But that's pretty futile, as the ads have already been shown, and they can just promise to change them in future.

Action Fraud if you think they are defrauding people. But one thing Action Fraud doesn't do is to take action on fraud.

rogerbfastlane

Look and see if Voltex carries a CE mark. If not, it is actually illegal to sell this in the UK. Even with a CE mark this does not mean it works, just that it won't disturb or cause damage to the mains supply and is not dangerous to the user or radiate noise that can affect other systems.  Anything promising energy savings upto 50% will be a lie. 99% of any products claiming Tesla invented it is just appropriating his name with absolutely NO MERIT. Tesla "invented" or certainly codified the Mains AC systems that we use today for generation, transmission and electric motors - he DID NOT "invent" cheap (or expensive) widgets as suggested and use of his name in this context is just a stupid marketing ploy. Mains noise in the UK is not excessive and is generally filtered out but computers etc can be better protected using a surge/noise filter equipped socket or a more expensive UPS if worried about PC power security- these DO WORK at relatively low cost and WILL protect your devices, but they won't save money and the Voltex device will be no better (and probably a lot worse). Power factor correction devices need to be large to correct large phase error. It is illegal in the UK to connect anything with large power factor phase errors to the mains so nothing you own will generate this type of problem in the first place. There MAY be some very small error in your power factor due to mostly inductive devices being connected - essentially big electric motors. The smaller motors in fridges etc will already have some filtration fitted and do not create a measurable problem. Digital electricity meters - particularly early US made ones - were notoriously poor at measuring accurately with poor power factors and DID in some cases over read by up to 10% but ONLY if the Power Factor was exceedingly poor in the first place. This COULD potentially have an affect if running Big Air Con, Big Fridges and Fans 24-7 in a commercial environment. In a household situation this is usually <<3% and if fact in almost every case down below the overall measurement accuracy of the meter so you would see no change to your bills. Commercial Power Factor correction devices that ARE required for factories and large buildings where there are large electric motors etc consist of banks of capacitors (large cylindrical devices) the size of cars. Even in a household environment the necessary capacitors to correct even a small power factor error (that in any case cannot be measured on your meter) would be say 10x the size of a Voltex. The old analogue electric meters (with the rotating disc) always measure accurately even with poor power factor due to the way the magnetic components interact, In short, this is an entirely bogus device that - although it MAY contain minor filtration for noise and a small capacitive load to offset a tiny amount of  inductive loads - any changes will be inadequate to save you ANY money at all and any money spent would be better directed towards big brand high quality mains disturbance filters to prevent the once every 5 years spikes affecting expensive TVs, computers that could potentially cause some damage. Surge protection extension sockets are a simple and reasonably cheap option with PUBLISHED RESULTS and data showing how well they work - NOT fudged adverts, entirely bogus enthusiastic reviews. DO NOT waste your money or believe this sort of technobabble - particularly if it even MENTIONS Tesla as he has become a touchstone name for just about every bogus electrical device offered online,

phillw

winkers said:

Is the Voltex energy saving gadget a scam?

If it's not, then they are doing a great job making it look like a scam...

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/dodgy-technology/voltex-device-that-cuts-your-power-bill-by-up-to-90/

GraceCourt

The UK version of the advertisement (which appears prominently on "winadinner.com"... black marks, Chris!) states that:

"... most Brits are overpaying for electricity by a whopping £27.6 billion dollars per year..."

Errmm... thanks for the pound sign, guys, but we don't use dollars on this side of the Atlantic Ocean! It goes on to claim in the very next paragraph that:

"... we as Brits have an energy crisis - a lack of energy from lawmakers and the Public Utility Commission about fixing the crooked business of selling overpriced electricity to consumers."

The only problem with this claim is that there is no such thing as the "Public Utility Commission" in the UK!  The narrative is poorly-written, at least partly untrue, and in other parts makes no sense.  That's before actually determining whether such a device can make ANY savings for the user whatsoever (clue: it theoretically could save a few per cent, if "power factor correction" is built into a three-phase industrial supply, which domestic households aren't... so save your money).

In closing... "up to 90%" includes 0%.  Enough said.

Gerry1

They state that "It does not change what the meter reads", so obviously it won't reduce your bills !

Grizzlebeard

The One (or possibly 3) capacitors this gadget uses are already replicated in just about every appliance in your house. The fridge, washing machine, washer, drier, computer, telly, sky box. Each of these already has these components wired across the mains to comply with regulations concerning interference and to protect from surges, not save electricity. Do these save your bills? Adding another, (or 2-3 for a larger house) will do absolutely nothing. If these gadgets save you 50% then just plugging in the above listed household items are already saving you 500%!
It's a disgrace that these ads still appear on even main stream sites like the Yahoo finance pages, but they do. The Company gives a flashy New York address or something for head office, but if you check out the small print you're consumer rights are governed by the legal statutes of Lithuania. I'm sure there's nothing wrong with Lithuanian law but ask yourself why a company hides it's taxes and business operations there.
Also I've seldom read more glaringly fake reviews than those they present on the website.

BathermJohn

I looked at this the other day. I am an electrical engineer by original qualification.  Some of what they say is plausible -ie the part about cleaning up a noisy sine wave, Here in rural Devon we have terribly dirty mains supply and this will effect the efficiency of many motor based appliances. However this unlike other energy saving scams is not really changing the power factor as such. The issue I have and why I think it cannot work, is the L&N coming into the whole property would have to be pass through a filter/cleaner for it to possibly work.  They talk about plugging a device into the near and far end of the ring main which makes no sense to me at all. And further more if such a device did exist that works, it would have to be a lot more substantial than this plastic plug-in thingy.  Mains filters have existed forever and were usually fitted to delicate test equipment or sensitive telemetry receivers etc, but again in series with the device in question.