Simple,cheap,working,legal device to reduce electric bill(power factor optim.)

[Trino Cularoid]

Keep in mind that different countries or even states/cities might have different measuring approaches. In any case, a local PFC saves energy, but not necessarily money. But that is already a good reason I would say. (The energy saved is the one that would be lost in the wiring between your home and the PFC at the power plant/distribution station. Just be sure you're not doing PFC for your whole neighborhood by accident.)

[fritznien]

fritznien, 

I'm sorry if you may be confused, as a electrical engineer for 10 years 24 years ago, and a practicing Oregon State licensed electrical contractor for the past 24 years, with 34 years of electrical experience total, one would think I know something about this having delt with it 100's of times. 

Amps are Amps and have nothing to do with "PHASE ANGLE" in this post, or a residential service.

Do you know how to change the "Phase Angle" from the power supplied to a home service by the utility provider without effecting other services supplied from the same transformer? or can you ever do it with out permission from your utility provider?

Adding PF corrector equipment can effect every service connected to a "shared" utility service providers transformer and can cause fluctuations to all services connected to that transformer.

you would think an iron ring would know. me i'm just an EET who spent years in school learning about electronics. what part did i get wrong? that PF only costs the utility money or that the meter is acurate? as for correcting power facter, every load you use in you house changes the PF for your service. as long as your equipment is approved why would anyone care?

[Trino Cularoid]

as long as your equipment is approved why would anyone care?

Some people care about the environment, some are just cheap. Some countries have much stricter PFC requirements than the US though, so it might not make that much a difference there.

[Creativity]

I was reading around at the subject(papers/articles from the industry) to view the power factor from the energy producer and consumer points of view.

to tell the truth i m perplexed about what exactly is measured at the home meter.Many of u r saying that the meter measures VA. Different sources state that in Europe it is the real power(so reactive is not taken into account) and just big energy users are to pay fines for the phase shift they introduce(if power factor goes below 0.95).Because of the extra reactive power used,the load(amps) on power substations/transformers increases.Electric company has to forsee bigger substations just to account for that fact..client pays higher rates to cover the reactive power transmission(more amps) and for the upgraded substations.BTW reactive power is not economical for energy company to produce and transmit.In fact we all pay for the costs of reactive power production and transmission,so reducing it could slow down the yearly rising energy transmission costs.In this way it would save us money in long term,with participation of many people.
Ok, we r progressive group of individuals in this forum and it is our duty to push the frontier on every energy aspect...that is just what we feel is right to do.So i would invest this few $/â,¬.

Big energy users install banks of caps,cooled superconductive coils and so on to become their own reactive power producer.Doing so they avoid fines from the energy companies and save money in long term.

So i just need a way to verify just what kind of measurements the energy meter is performing.Anyone an idea how to verify it?
( i was thinking to try to make the meter to turn faster or slower by an RC load .If it has PF awarness ,it should not be possible to achive ,because it would just measure the real power).

I am also almost sure that different countries will have different energy meters principes.Like in Asia,they may still be using the techniques we used in Europe after WWII.In that case the energy saver would work in those regions quite well.

About USA i have no idea what standards u have there.From what u r saying it looks taht even the cable colours are different :)we have yellow/green,black or brown and blue

[Creativity]

... If both 120 volt line to ground legs or phases are balanced at 60 amps per leg or phase ..... right you pay for the 60 amps ..... not the 80 amp high leg or phase on a unbalance 3-wire system.
...

that sounds very interesting as an electric company i would charge for 120Amps and not from one leg  r u sure it is true?

I'm sorry if you may be confused, as a electrical engineer for 10 years 24 years ago, and a practicing Oregon State licensed electrical contractor for the past 24 years, with 34 years of electrical experience total, one would think I know something about this having delt with it 100's of times.

Amps are Amps and have nothing to do with "PHASE ANGLE" in this post, or a residential service.

Do you know how to change the "Phase Angle" from the power supplied to a home service by the utility provider without effecting other services supplied from the same transformer? or can you ever do it with out permission from your utility provider?

Adding PF corrector equipment can effect every service connected to a "shared" utility service providers transformer and can cause fluctuations to all services connected to that transformer.

IF industry is using PFC it means it is beneficial for both the energy producer and consumer to use it.If we won't overdo PFC it should just be beneficial for the substations.
There was some discussion in one of the papers about using of PCF before companys trafo and after it(big energy user with own substation).At that time i wasn't putting much of an attention to this subject so i don't remember exacly what were the pros and cons of both approaches.

About the permissions i have no idea,but every cooling agregate at my shop has cap's on it providing some PFC.If this is allowed that adding extra cap here and there should not be of a much problem.I may be wrong.