To all interested: I have examined my customers energy bills and there is a power factor number displayed on every bill, in this case .85 or 85%. Now I don't know if the meter reader actually is reading that off the meter every month or not, I suspect they are only interested in the kWh and demand reading each month but if you watch the digital meter it does display KVAR and some number as it steps through four or five different readings, guess it would be nice to know what all those other readings are.
Now for the rest of the story. I called the utility company, Consumers Energy in this case and asked if my customer would get a lower rate if he were to bring his power factor closer to unity. The answer was "no. There is no rate decrease for power factors of 80% or greater only an increase if he drops below 80%" even though he spends a couple thousand on average a month, power factor correction would not benefit him unless his power factor drooped below 80%. In a nut shell, the only people to benefit by installing these energy saving gizmos are the people who sell and install them and the power company, don't let anybody try to tell you any different. The customer had the gizmo salesman call and talk to me and tell me how it worked, he said "It stores the power until you need it then it puts it back in to line" Quote from their website: http://energy-saver.org/ The Electric Meter Miser The Best Place to Earn up to a 30% Return! Packed with energy storing capacitors, it holds excess energy until you are ready to draw more from the power grid. Most appliance motors operate and expend wasted energy forcing you to demand more energy from your power source. This energy-saver stores electricity keeping your bill down to affordable levels. How could I argue with that? Here is my favorite you tube video, toward the end he is showing a power factor meter device hooked up to a typical house with an energy gizmo. With the gizmo off the power factor is .05 thats right 5%, with the unit on it is increased to .98. How could I argue with that? tom-n8ies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOaGB_ehaHM <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/sOaGB_ehaHM&hl=en&fs=1";></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/sOaGB_ehaHM&hl=en&fs=1"; type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
