Hi,
This seems to offer what they normally do in industry, if you have large
inductive loads you can compensate it by using power factor compensation
systems. In industry where they get severely penalised by the grid for
having a power factor that is not close to 1 (normally 0.98), this
systems will deliver a big cost saving. These systems normally comprise
of capacitor banks that are switch in and out of circuit as required and
control electronics that determines when to switch them. The one we
have, just calculates before hand based on power requirements, what
capacitance is required and when. This makes for a cheaper system but as
it is only an estimate some times it gets switched on when not required
and there goes the power factor again. Other more modern systems do it
in real-time.
For a residential application I'm not that sure it would make that much
difference to your electric bill. If this just has some capacitors and
no control electronics, then I think is a waste of time.
My feeling is that it is "snake oil"
Best Regards
            Luis  
       

-----Original Message-----
From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf
Of William Couture
Sent: 18 January 2010 16:02
To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
Subject: [EE] Is this snake oil?

Hi everyone!

My wife and I were at the local home show this weekend, and one of the
exhibitors
was "four leaf energy", which was displaying / selling an energy
saving unit for the
home.

They claim it's a capacitor system that hooks up to your breaker panel
and reduces
the load used by motors, saving energy and money.

It this something real, or "snake oil"?  I'd appreciate your opinion.

Their website is
   http://www.fourleafenergy.com

Check out their brochure and the FAQ, where they try to explain how the
system
saves energy.

Thanks,
   Bill

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