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Do Power Savers Really Save Power?

Many companies have found market for their small handheld products that claim to save 30-40 per cent electrical power, thereby reducing electricity bill. But can you really save electricity by plugging in a small device?
circuit of an establishment. What are the benefits of power savers? Power savers primarily save electrical power. However, these also improve the quality of input electrical signal, and thus enhance the life-span of household appliances. How do they work? The design of a power saver is based on the principles of power factor correction (PFC), harmonic current filter and surge protection. While PFC helps in reducing reactive power wastage, harmonic reduction improves the quality of power signal. In the long run, surges may cause heating and seriously damage the household devices. The improved quality of the signal prevents damage to the transmission line. The circuit of a power saver is designed to prevent heat loss by appliances. What is inside a power saver? The device has a big PFC capacitor and a current harmonic filter circuit. Some devices also have metal-oxide varistors (MOVs) that act as transient suppressors, protecting the circuit from voltage spikes. A series connected thermal fuse is used with MOVs to provide protection in the event of short circuit. Power savers come with integrated voltage stabilisation circuit too. A light-emitting diode (LED) is used to indicate power-on condition. Is it legal to use power savers? Yes, it is absolutely legal. Using a power saver does not mean fiddling
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A power saver unit plugged into a wall socket

Shweta Dhadiwal baid

t is rightly said, Energy saved is energy produced. Power saver is a smart attempt in this direction. The theory behind power savers or energy savers (used interchangeably by many people) is foolproof, but there are a lot of conditions that affect the practical applications of power saver
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devices. Heres what we asked the manufacturers... What is a power saver? A power saver (PS) device resembles a mosquito-repellent plugin gadget (like All-out or GoodKnight) and is meant to save power in houses, shops and small offices. It is plugged into a socket to work in parallel with other appliances connected to the electrical

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or electronic meters. The traditional torqueResistive and Inductive Loads operated meters are highly Type of load Power saver Examples sensitive to spikes, giving benefit incorrect readings someResistive No Bulb, geyser, electric iron times. Electronic meters, Inductive Yes Air-conditioner, refrigerator, on the other hand, are more water pump, washing machine, accurate. All these factors tubelight influence the savings from power savers. Table II Visit www.derc.gov. Power Consumption by in/ElectronicMeters/ Different Devices Awareness/FAQs.html#a1 Device Wattage Number of units Total wattage to learn more about meter Air-conditioner 1.5 kW 1 1.5 kW readings. Tubelight 40W 4 160W A typical home electrical circuit with power saver Under what conditions ... ... ... ... is the power saver really with the electricity meter. A power effective? Total 2.1 kW saver is connected to the electrical If you have only resiscircuit after the meter, which means it power savings. The saving is only in tive load (bulbs, iron, geyser, etc), condoes not hamper or manipulate meter terms of wastage or reactive power. necting a power saver to the electrical functioning. There is no reduction in true power circuit wont give you any significant Can I use it in my house to save (actual working power) required by power saving. Even if you add a electricity? the appliances to function. tubelight and a fan to these devices, Power savers can be used in flats, Ageing of appliances. Efficiency you wont be able to save much. You houses, shops or small offices. But of any electronic/electrical appliance can save only on those devices which power savings depend on the type of contribute to the inductive load, such decreases with ageing. This also rethe load being used in the building. as refrigerators, washing machines, sults in more heat losses. Power savWill it give me 30 per cent power motors and air-conditioners. ers show significant savings with old savings as claimed by the manufacAgain, the percentage saving deappliances. turer? Locality. Areas with high voltage pends on the parameters mentioned Most companies claim that their fluctuations like shops and restauearlier. Power savers save only the devices can save 30 to 40 per cent of rants can gain additional savings from power that is wasted or is not useful. Are power savers tested or certipower. However, the actual savings power savers. are only 5-10 per cent. Electricity meter. It also affects the fied? What are the parameters on which working of power savers. Power saver devices may not necesthe savings depend? Atmosphere. Working of air-condisarily be tested. However, agencies like The power savings depend on: tioners and refrigerators depends on National Test House perform tests and Type of house. In old houses, wear the atmospheric temperature. Thus the issue certificates. These tests do not and tear in copper wires may result atmosphere plays an important role in comment on percentage saving. They in current leakage, thus adding to the power savings. provide only factual readings with or What is the role of electricity mepower loss. In such houses, power without the power saver in constantsavers may facilitate better savings. ter? load condition. However, in houses with new wiring, Electricity is not stable, as flucEFY Lab reviewed the test certhe percentage saving from power savtuations occur from the supply side. At tificate of a power saver, which ers is relatively less. the same time, the load in houses is not indicated six per cent savings for a Type of appliances. More inducbalanced. Meters installed in houses window air-conditioner through the tive appliances in a house means more are either traditional torque-operated power saver. What are the different types of power savers? Before choosing a power saver, you need to figure Power saver devices come in difout the resistive and inductive loads in your house. ferent kilo-watt (kW) ratings of power You must have some inductive appliances to avail capacity. Commonly available are the power saving benefit 3 kW, 6 kW, 10 kW and 15 kW. Gener-

Table I

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The theory: How it works
Most of the household appliances such as refrigerator, air-conditioner, fan, fluorescent tubelight and mixer grinder are inductive in nature. Inductive loads create a phase difference between the AC current and voltage. The wires and the transformers are also inductive in nature. Inductive loads require reactive power to work, which increases the current that the source provides. This can be explained very clearly from the Macs dragging analogy shown in Fig. 1. The true power or the actual power to drag the load is kW in forward direction. Power factor is the cosine of the phase difference between the current and the voltage. When the voltage and the current are in phase with each other in an AC circuit, the electrical energy drawn from the source is fully converted into another form of energy in the load, and the power factor is unity. When the current lags the voltage, the energy is wasted in reactive power and the power factor is less than unity, making the system less efficient. Power factor correction is a method in which a reactive load is introduced in the opposite Fig. 1: Dragging MACs BMI Walogy direction to cancel out the reactance of the inductive load by using a power-factor-correction capacitor. In India, the power factor is usually in the range of 0.7-0.8 depending on the house and load. The capacitors used for PFC are a special type of low-voltage capacitors. (Please refer April 2006 issue of EFY for details on PFC.) Current harmonic reduction and surge protection. Power electronic equipment are a source of current harmonics and electromagnetic interference (EMI). It means that the input-side current waveform is distorted as the sum of multiple frequencies is fed at the input. The harmonic currents introduce losses in every element of the electrical distribution system. The harmonic voltages and currents deteriorate Fig. 2: Utility interface needs harmonic filtering the quality of power and give rise to the following unacceptable issues: 1. High voltage and current distortion (total harmonic distortion) at the load 2. High neutral-to-ground voltages at the load 3. Heating losses in transformers, bus duct, feeder, circuit and the appliance itself 4. Reduction in power available from the wall outlet to about two-third 5. Overrated line-frequency transformers and DC-side filter capacitors Fig. 3: Current waveforms There are two types of harmonic filters: passive filters and active filters. Passive filters are one or more circuits comprising inductors and capacitors and even resistors sometimes. The values of these components are designed such that they remove particular frequency instead of the entire spectrum of distortion. Passive filters are less expensive than active filters. Active filters virtually remove all the distortion from the system. These continuously monitor the distortion in the waveform and provide controlled current injection in order to remove the harmonics by generating a sinusoidal current waveform that is in phase with the input voltage. The filter design is dependent on the kVA requirement of the load, harmonic profile of the load current and also the configuration of the existing system. ally, household load does not exceed 15 kW. Therefore a single power saver can be used with single-phase supply in houses and shops. For three-phase connection at a small office, three power savers should be installed separately in each phase. How can I choose a power saver? Before choosing a power saver, you need to figure out the resistive and inductive loads in your house (see Table I). You must have some inductive appliances to avail the power saving benefit. A process called energy audit can help you in deciding the power saver capacity
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that you need. Table II shows a sample of the energy audit that you can do individually. From this table, you can get a rough estimate of the total wattage of devices in your house. The total wattage value will help you in deciding which power saver to use. For example, if you have a total of 20kW load in your house, of which approximately 15 kW is from inductive loads mentioned in Table I, you can use a single power saver of 15 kW. If that is not available, you can use a combination of 10kW and 6kW power savers. Using a power saver of

more than 15 kW will not give any additional saving. For a small office with three-phase connection, you can calculate the load in each phase and repeat the above process before installing the power saver. Do I have to take any precaution while plugging in the device? Power savers are very easy to install. However, you must make sure that the neutral and ground lines are insulated and there is no loose connection. Plug the power saver in a socket that is closest to the mains circuit breaker.
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What is the life-span of a power saver? The lifespan of power savers depends on the life of PFC capacitors (measured in the number of burning hours) used. PFC capacitors are manufactured by Siemens, ABB, GE, etc. From their datasheets, we found that the life of a capacitor is 6-8 years. Some capacitors come with even higher burning hour ratings. What are the other benefits? Power savers reduce the heating loss in appliances. This helps in improving their life. Also, the lower value of current harmonics improves the quality of signal. This reduces the carbon emission on the power generation side. Thus, it is beneficial for the utility company providing electrical supply. For 1 kW of power, 11 kg of carbon is emitted. How much do these devices cost? The range is widefrom Rs 400 to

Contributors to this article

1. Ravi Kumar, E.S. Electronics, Bengaluru 2. Dr Manish Sharma, professor, IIT Delhi 3. Milind Patwardhan, professor, VIT Pune 4. Wintech Power, Delhi 5. Buztec, Chandigarh 6. Electronic Control System, Nagpur 7. EFY Lab, Delhi Rs 1600. This cost is not dependent on additional features or higher savings. Rather, it is based on the capacity of the devices and varies from one brand to another. Tips on buying a good power saver? Power savers have been much hyped through SMS marketing and telemarketing. Here are a few buying tips: 1. If you have very few inductive appliances in your house, power saver may not be the option for you.

2. Buy the power saver only from a reputed company. 3. Seek existing customers testimonials/comments. 4. Go for a power saver that comes with guarantee period exceeding 30 days, as you cannot judge its benefits in less than 30 days. 5. Try buying from a seller who offers money-back guarantee, as there are duplicates with just an LED circuit available in the market. 6. If you have a small office and a three-phase supply, the power saver may be effective. Where from can I buy a power saver? Visit www.eleb2b.com and select the section for domestic power saver manufacturers. You will get the list of all the manufacturers along with their contact details.
The author is a senior technology journalist at EFY

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