OkoWatt

[rumpty]

We had an email a few days ago about an electricity saving device you must buy, called OkoWatt. It is very short on detail about how it works.

"Okowatt straightens electricity and reduces its loss to wasted electricity that you don’t consume but pay for. "Hey, does it turn the AC into DC?"

Whatever it does, it sounds like a scam, more or less.

[zqwerty]

It's a scam:

https://www.google.com/search?q=OkoWatt

[tweak'e]

yeah theres thousands of these "devices" going back man many decades.
all based around the idea of power correction, which is actually a thing. installing a capacitor to offset the inductance from the appliances. which is what this device has in it.
however it needs to be matched to the appliance to work and good appliances do that anyway.
plus good power meters should all ready take it into account ie read actual power usage instead of apparent power.

one of the issues today is many cheaper led lights use capacitor for power regulation. that means you would need to add an inductor to correct the power factor. adding more capacitors makes it worse.

[rumpty]

Thanks for the information. So it is useless for the average household, and the only purchasers are likely to be average householders, sucked in.

But there is, being sold by Amazon, for one. They are not being particularly ethical regarding this product.

[piroska]

"Okowatt straightens electricity and reduces its loss to wasted electricity that you don’t consume but pay for. "Hey, does it turn the AC into DC?"

Whatever it does, it sounds like a scam, more or less.

Straightens??!! electricity?

LOL.

[dugimodo]

stops the electrons falling out on the corners perhaps

[zqwerty]

"Straightens??!! electricity?"

Makes the Load seem Purely Resistive to the Metering System, ie Current and Voltage Wave-forms are made to look In Phase, ie Power Factor Correction.

[1101]

Not a scam .
https://apnews.com/press-release/wir...ca991f3db71ef6

"Many consumers have tried out OkoWatt and are seeing the difference from the very first power bill. They are paying out less money each month to the power company, which means more money in their pocket.
People have very positive things to say about OkoWatt, whether they are consumers or industry experts."

Must be true, as its on the internet
Big Power Companies dont want you knowing about these devices , Big Power Companies want to charge you more for power . So Big Power is spreading false rumors
Just as big power are suppressing free energy devices .
They tried to tell me the Shares in the Ak Harbour Bridge was scam. I bought some, now worth millions. Who's laughing now ?

Anyway...
As used at Area51 .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J86QK0Njfv4

[zqwerty]

Actually I always understood Power Factor Correction to be an attempt by the power meter people to restore a resistive load because that is the way maximum charges can legitimately be made.

Also a load being predominately resistive stops pulses of interference on the line during switch/on and switch/off, another good reason power companies monitor phase shift in products sold.

With any phase shifting being present the meter reads less than the actual usage, ie an inductive or capacitive load will cause the meter to read a lower value Wattage, not a higher correct one.

At least I think that is what I was taught at trade school more than 50 years ago. Don't have the notes anymore.

[tweak'e]

Actually I always understood Power Factor Correction to be an attempt by the power meter people to restore a resistive load because that is the way maximum charges can legitimately be made.

Also a load being predominately resistive stops pulses of interference on the line during switch/on and switch/off, another good reason power companies monitor phase shift in products sold.

With any phase shifting being present the meter reads less than the actual usage, ie an inductive or capacitive load will cause the meter to read a lower value Wattage, not a higher correct one.

At least I think that is what I was taught at trade school more than 50 years ago. Don't have the notes anymore.

i can't recall which one does which. however it common subject now because of all the cheap LED lights which use capacitor dropper power supplies.
ie your 2 watt led takes 5 watt to run. however modern power meters correct for that tho many suggestions that power co's turn that feature off.

power co's have big capacitor banks that they switch on when heavy industry starts up as most industry is inductive loading (eg electric motors).

i have welders with power factor correction, that allows less amperage drawn for the same welding output. i get about 10% increase in output for the same power input.
that makes a big difference when your pushing the limits.
i also have some lights that have built in power factor correction.