Hello, has anyone come across the emerging technology of spintronics within buildings?

The phrase spintronics is normally used in relation to materials exhibiting a group quantum state where there is coupling between the spins of adjacent atoms- in conductors this allows high speed ultra-low current electronic switching devices  and certain types of topological semiconductors that may one day be useful for quantum computing. All of this is very lab based, and normally at temperatures requiring helium dilution refrigeration. This research does of course take place inside buildings, but I suspect that is not the intent of the original question. ;-)


What Enpact are doing has nothing whatsoever to do with any of this and seems to be a mixture of conventional voltage optimization (supplying  220V instead of 240 for example https://emissis.com/enpact-electricaloptimisation/ )  and something that looks like it may be missing cycle drive to lightly loaded motors , which if it is, involves sensing back EMF from a spinning motor and cutting out the supply for a few cycles at a time, when the rotor speed is already acceptable, much as the kit that companies like SavaWatt were developing in the 1980s. (*)
The enPact brochure also describes improved computer control systems for existing systems to optimise on-off times.

These first  two techniques are very popular, particularly the missing cycle drive for refrigeration equipment - in supermarkets  specifically, while voltage optimization is used at data centres and probably many other industrial settings, and both techniques go back nearly 50 years.

Modern electronic power supplies and variable speed drives are slowly making this sort of thing less important.
regards 

Mike.

(*) Personal interest declaration here - I had the opportunity to study something like this as a PhD project, but while it was interesting, I ended up looking at the then more novel optical fibres and fibre lasers instead ;-)

Thank you for the very detailed response. 

Their web site seems to contain no information whatsoever on what the product actually is.

Yes, I thought that as well - almost like they don't really have manufacturing capability, engineering knowledge, or products on shelves ready to ship or examples of working installations they can show on the website at all ;-~)

Companies that do generally like to show pictures of at least 2 or more of those or at least beaming customers standing beside newly installed equipment.... Unattributed clip-art makes the website looked to me more like that of a management consultancy in that sense.
Perhaps the 'spin' in their idea of spin-tronics is the 'political spin' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_(propaganda) sense rather than the kind in spin-orbit coupling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_(physics) ?

Mike

Probably more like Spin Selling/Marketing (the forerunner to political spin) [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_Selling and 'the book'].

Also matches (in a personal sense) the STAR approach to professional registration / CPD / Annual Appraisal - same 4 points, different focus!

From their LinkedIn page https://www.linkedin.com/posts/graeme-day-a7b16717_enpact-filterpro-reduce-electricity-waste-activity-7337847188716244992-nFA8/

EnPact FilterPro

Reduce electricity waste at the source with up to 10% site-wide savings through power quality optimisation.

In energy-intensive industries like food retail and production, maintaining stable, efficient electrical supply is crucial—not just for cost savings, but for equipment performance, safety, and compliance.
enPact FilterPro is a retrofit solution that optimises electrical power quality by reducing energy losses caused by voltage fluctuations, harmonic distortion, and noise from inductive loads.
Using Carbon Nanotube (CNT) and spintronics* technology, FilterPro stabilises and enhances your site’s power environment—lowering electricity consumption, improving system reliability, and reducing carbon output.

*Spintronics is a field of study and technology that utilizes the spin of electrons, in addition to their charge, to create new and potentially more efficient electronic devices. Unlike traditional electronics, which relies solely on electron charge, spintronics exploits the intrinsic spin of electrons, which can be thought of as a tiny magnetic moment.

And then a picture of a circuit board from which we'll each have to draw our own conclusions as to what appears to be on it.

In the end it's the usual buyer beware - all this actually quotes in terms of benefit to the buyer (i.e. grounds on which they could be in trouble for non-compliance if they didn't meet it) is "up to 10% saving". And 0% saving is "up to 10%". If they claimed that they were achieving 10% saving by using spintronics then they could be on dodgy ground, but they aren't. It would be interesting to know how they would back up the claim "using spintronics technology" - but they don't have to justify this provided that's not the reason customers are buying it. 

I am so glad that I now work in an industry where this type of marketing rarely happens (because the buyers simply won't put up with it!) For many years I worked in the music industry which was even worse...

Andy Millar said:

For many years I worked in the music industry which was even worse...

Oh the beauty of those oxygen free copper cables!

Then there's Earthing.. (but https://tv.theiet.org/?videoid=1327 "Audio Signal Interfaces and System Earthing" by Bill Whitlock was very good, even if the iet.tv access interface is poor)

One of the pictures appears to show some special ceramic busbars, that's where the spin must be added.... Haven't we seen this sort of thing before in the old forums? The company is genuine and doesn't seem to contain the same conman but I am suspicious. It could just be a combination of transformer, simple capacitor and lots of hot air.

And if you're lucky, it might be a real capacitor.  I've seen the Big Clive videos on YouTube, where even the capacitors are fake.