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If we could take a look at a schematic we could tell how this works.
One way to do it would be to simply build a 120vac to 120vac converter (120vac mains of course). The input would be real power but the output could be anything.
The unit apparently corrects for the lagging power factor (PFC) cause by motors in the house. A PF of less than 1 causes additional current to flow in the lines which causes slight additional IR power loss in the house and transmission line wiring. To reduce the loss in the house wiring the unit would have to be connected directly to the motors being corrected. Since this unit mounts on the power panel to the house it will only reduce the current from the lines into the house (saving the power company some current), but it will have no effect on the current into the house going to the motors (contrary to their implication).
The power company often requires commercial users to pay for this reactive power (excess current due to of PF<1) but home users generally don't. If you notice in the How It Works column, only current reduction to the power company is noted. So the unit would not save the typical home owner any money.
The only thing it does, that might be beneficial, is the surge protection it provides, but you can likely achieve that will units cheaper than the cost of the KVAR unit.
I tried the google and one part reads "A company called KVAR Energy Savings, Inc. is running around claiming they invented how to apply capacitors to inductive loads. This is not only humorously false it is an outright lie".
When I lived off-grid in 1992, I had a Trace 52 Amp power inverter and battery charger (Model 2524SB). In one test of charging in Home Power magazine, it produced 50 amps of charging as just a charger with nothing else turned on while powered by a 8hp gasoline generator. But when an big additional load of something, a washing machine I think, was connected, the charge rate increased to the full 52 Amps. It had to be due to the lead/lag of the one device straightening out the PF towards 1, if I recall correctly. I may have this backwards and the additional load was a workshop of fluorescent lights. It was 18 years ago.
I hoped the KVAR unit did the same. The salesman at Home Depot swore by his. It sounded too good to be true.
Then the issue remains, how best to protect items that cannot be connected to a power strip of a high Joule capacity? The other devices for sale were a number of ~ $60 units that plugged into the main wall panel instead of the usual 240 volt thing there, commonly the water heater or stove. They had different Joule ratings proportional to their prices.
What I am interested in is the surge protection from lightning. Right now, with our giant number of hits, I turn off our $2700 HDTV (current replacement cost ~$1500) by unplugging the surge protector when it is not in use. Our area FPL Co. power pole got hit again yesterday at 1:15 EST and we were out of power until 7pm.
I do not think our house got hit, but lightning seems to go where it wants. When I lived off grid, for two years I had no phone. Then when we finally got phone, we found out a hit just about anywhere along the buried 17,000 feet of telephone wire would fry the phones. We kept one phone plugged in but had a supply of $9.95 phones like most people stock spare batteries. The good phones were only plugged in on sunny days.
A plugged in surge protector will provide some surge protection to anything in the house on that phase of the AC since the surge protection elements are just connected across the line and are not directional.
But if you want one unit for the whole house I Googled "whole house surge protector" and had numerous hits such as **broken link removed**.
A plugged in surge protector will provide some surge protection to anything in the house on that phase of the AC since the surge protection elements are just connected across the line and are not directional.
But if you want one unit for the whole house I Googled "whole house surge protector" and had numerous hits such as **broken link removed**.
Thank you. Home Depot had nothing like this in stock. 67 users mostly liked it. Some said it was over priced. **broken link removed**
One member whose alias was Trained of Arizona Date: 3/23/2010 siad this
Review: Don't bother with this, or any other retail Whole House Surge protector. 1. 50,000amps is VERY low for a device at this level. Even a decent surge strip will have a current rating more than double this piece of junk. 2. Joule ratings are a completely arbitrary number for surge devices. Even when they are accurate, they only describe how much energy the protector itself can absorb before it fails. It has NOTHING to do with the connected devices. 3. They list no clamping voltage. This is an essential number. Lower is better. 4. The fact that they still use the TVSS term shows a lack of current standard adherence. The new term and standard is SPD: Surge Protective Devices, UL 1449, 3rd edition. TVSS are no longer able to be manufactured, therefore this device is questionable at best. 5. There is no such thing as instantaneous response time. Every legitimate device lists a response time as less than a specified time in nanoseconds. Generalizing this rating means they actually don't know. 6. Absolutely no device can protect against a direct strike. 7. Most surges are small, and most of those come from within the home. Therefore, you still need to use good quality strips for your most sensitive devices. A panel SPD will NOT protect against them. strips should have the lowest clamping voltage RMS, over 100k Amps, 5 nanoseconds response time, and NOT joules FYI, I am a well educated and trained electrician and electronics technician. I install real panel SPD devices for clients, with real specifications, not sales BS.
This seems odd with so many good ratings of 5 of 5 stars.
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