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The things people tell you to try and earn a coin.....

jbrameld

This dropped into my inbox today and was the cause of a wry smile.....

XXXXXX are one of the leading UK based energy reduction companies with a 20 year engineering history. We deliver guaranteed energy reduction solutions (including voltage optimisation) for a variety of UK businesses. Voltage Optimisation is a simple yet effective method of removing harmful overvoltage and reducing electricity costs whilst dramatically prolonging the lifespan of all electrical equipment.

 

As most of our appliances are manufactured to European standards (CE mark), they have been designed to work most effectively at 220v. The UK grid, on average, sits at the 242v mark – therefore we are using more voltage than necessary!  Voltage Optimisation works by reducing the incoming voltage to around the 220v mark – much more in line with the design voltage of the appliances.

 

All our solutions are delivered following extensive desktop analysis & comprehensive site surveys to understand your electrical load and where savings can be guaranteed.

This accompanied by an image (that I can't figure out how to copy and paste from the e-mail into this post) showing that I may be 'paying for up to 253V' that I don't need.

Today's homework is to provide science to validate this claim......or not.......

Surge protection is one thing - but I suspect this is another.  I wonder how they do this for those who part with their money for this 'service' - possibly by an AVR, or 'adjustable' transformer - all of which will have some element of consumption/losses of their own.

Jason.

Parents

  • Ah, the old snake oil debate. Certainly "Voltage Optimisation" can reduce consumption with some uncontrolled (e.g. always on) fixed resistance appliances - e.g. conventional filament or old magnetic ballasted fluorescent lighting - but at the expense of lower output.  Generally the same effect could be produced by reducing the number of fittings slightly - but a VO unit may well be more convenient to install.  Tends not to work with heating as that's normally thermostatically controlled and the reduced voltage just means it takes longer to warm up - eventually the total energy consumed will be the same (or possibly even higher if the extra heat up time means greater  thermal losses). Anything with a modern electronic PSU (e.g. LED lighting) will almost certainly increase the current draw to maintain the same power demand, so no gain at all - in fact the increased current will likely mean greater losses in the wiring systems (and in extreme cases, possibly causing mild overloads).

        -  Andy.

Reply

  • Ah, the old snake oil debate. Certainly "Voltage Optimisation" can reduce consumption with some uncontrolled (e.g. always on) fixed resistance appliances - e.g. conventional filament or old magnetic ballasted fluorescent lighting - but at the expense of lower output.  Generally the same effect could be produced by reducing the number of fittings slightly - but a VO unit may well be more convenient to install.  Tends not to work with heating as that's normally thermostatically controlled and the reduced voltage just means it takes longer to warm up - eventually the total energy consumed will be the same (or possibly even higher if the extra heat up time means greater  thermal losses). Anything with a modern electronic PSU (e.g. LED lighting) will almost certainly increase the current draw to maintain the same power demand, so no gain at all - in fact the increased current will likely mean greater losses in the wiring systems (and in extreme cases, possibly causing mild overloads).

        -  Andy.

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