Miracle?

[Apellation Controlee]

Or is it a variation on the marketing of the infamous boiler short-cycling gizmo?

[Davey]

"Over a ten year period, fairly safe to assume that the average saving per annum could/would be double that +.

Depending on usage, the cost of the supply & installation of the Voltage Optimiser can/could be recouped within 1-3 years! "

Plenty of variables in that little bit alone. Personally, I would steer well clear of it.

[polygonum]

"From what we have told you so far the cost saving can be 20/30+ volts per appliance!"

Since when was cost measured in volts per appliance?

Fit ten or so and run at zero volts!

[polygonum]

As I see it, though this adjudication was upheld, it was very, very soft on the offenders:

Same company's kit as in the link.

[Jim K]

FFS you need to ask??!!?

Jim K

[Tim Streater]

So it's just a transformer? Does it look like one that could handle

10kW? I might occasionally consume that if I have a number of appliances running.

I'd have thought it might be a fire risk.

[Tim Watts]

On Tuesday 11 June 2013 12:52 Tim Streater wrote in uk.d-i-y:

It doesn't have to. 10kVA at 230VAC RMS = 44A more or less.

If it is dropping 30V in auto transformer mode then it needs to handle

1300VA more or less.

Now - that's a small site transformer if it was a real transformer. I assume the MT unit in the link uses switch mode principles in which case it's quite believable.

Still a load of bollocks though!

[Tim Watts]

On Tuesday 11 June 2013 12:27 Davey wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Given most of the load in a house not heated by electricity is now electronic load where the switch mode PSUs will just run a bit harder to compensate - so in fact a net *inefficiency*.

In a house with heating load, the thermostats will just stay on longer.

In a house with all incandescant lamps, maybe it will save a bit, but it would be a f*ck of a lot cheaper to just to buy the next wattage lamp down.

Christ - doesn't anyone pay attention in school physics lessons (GSCE/O- level) - this is very basic reasoning.

The last remark is NOT aimed at you Davey - but at all the morons who would be suckered into buying this rediculous snake oil.

[whisky-dave]

No, here at uni we brought a large scale on of these, the company telling the college how much it'd save, but I wonder who they suckered into it. of course theres a chance it did save money bit I;'m thinking perhaps te4h managment thought that by claiming to buy something which saved £20,000 o r whatever a year they could justify increasing their saleries as they'd do ne a good job for the college and environment. ;-)

Snake oil has a use it keeps snakes well oiled :)

[Mr Pounder]

Not everybody had the opportunity to be educated to that level :-(

[Tim Watts]

On Tuesday 11 June 2013 14:57 Mr Pounder wrote in uk.d-i-y:

[Dave Liquorice]

Quite even CSE Physics would be enough. Of course there is the world of difference between being given the opportunity and taking it... There were some right dossers at my secondary school, if they left with one CSE pass I'd be surprised.

[Mr Pounder]

Any real level in my case. I left skool at 15 and got an apprenticeship as a Heating Engineer. Yeah, I have put electrical sockets in. Looking back I shudder. All of the posh words that you lot use about ohms and things mean nothing to me. Now you all know I is a thick bastard. Don't tell ARW, he thinks I'm dead intelligent.

[David.WE.Roberts]

Note how they quote the UK Government, Which? and many other reputable authorities in the first paragraph.

Makes you feel all warm and safe and that the web site is advertising something of quality which has been tested and approved.

In fact all they are saying is that electricity prices are likely to go up (no shit, Sherlock) according to Which? and the government.

Oh, and can't talk to you on the phone but we are happy to come to your home to discuss this further (which IIRC gets around distance selling regulations, and cold calling regulations).

No sign further down of any independent testing.

The slithering trail of an oily snake, methinks.

Cheers

Dave R

[harry]

The theory is that by maintaining voltage at (say) 230 volts instead of the variation normally experienced, electricity can be saved.

This is true up to a point. Electricity would be saved in say lights and electric motors but only a few percent.

With heating however, if you "turn down" the voltage, all that happens is it runs a bit longer. So if you have a lot of electric heating devices, the power saved will be minimal.

So like all the best lies, a small element of truth. But for most people I can't see them ever getting their money back any time soon. It might break even in ten or fifteen years. But it may have broken down by then.

Look closely at the graphs. There is no scale on the horizontal axis. (Ten hours or ten years?) The vertical axis has two different scales, neither starting at zero, to confuse you.

[Tim Watts]

On Tuesday 11 June 2013 15:51 Dave Liquorice wrote in uk.d-i-y:

I explained the whole volt-reducing thing to my 9 year old.

With a little help she understood that less volts = less heat from a regular electric heater.

She very quickly grasped the idea that if the heater was putting out less power, then it would have to be on longer to achieve the same effect.

OK - she's quite bright, but I weep with dispair over how little critical thinking seems to go on amongst the adult population at large.

I managed to raise a coversation at work yesterday lunchtime over the NSA/PRISM topic. Only 2 people apart from me expressed an opinion and one of those was libyan (so rather keyed up on the whole "State getting out of hand" thing).

This is at a university... I think everyone's dead these days...

[Tim Watts]

On Tuesday 11 June 2013 16:43 harry wrote in uk.d-i-y:

to confuse the hard of thinking...

[Jethro_uk]

But surely was ever thus ? I think it's fair to say that there are sections of the population for whom the advance of science and technology just gives them new ways to be stupid.

Human progress is achieved by a constant dynamic between people who are "happy" with their world-view (usually achieved by mind-altering drugs like religion) and people who are *not* happy with their world view, considering it incomplete and unsatisfactory.

[meow2222]

Largely baloney, but not entirely.

- If you supply 9% less volts to your hoover, it'll still work ok and you save energy.

- If you supply 9% less volts to a kettle, it takes longer to boil and uses as much energy

- If you supply 9% less volts to a CFL, it uses the same energy

etc. So you can save energy, but that doesnt substantiate the claim, and likely not enough to make it woth buying. Some appliances get less energy efficient when v reduces.

NT

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , Apellation Controlee escribió:

I got this far:

"home owners are seriously at risk of not been able to pay their electricity bills"

then vomited copiously over my keyboard.