Anyone seen/heard of this lil' gadget??

[Gizmonster]

Is this for real or what:

http://www.nigelsecos...og/Energy_Wizard.html

I'm a firm believer of, "if it sounds too good to be true ......."

.... so what gives with this lil' device???

Pay £25 for The Energy Wizard and save 10% ish on your electric bills by doing ..... well, nothing.
Apparently it's been on Dragon's Den, but anyone could say that.

Has anyone seen/heard or better still tried this

[mrs.chappie]

I've never heard of it, and it deffo sounds too good to be true.

[AlBags]

We had this discussion before.
Prudie was involved too ..
and I am certainly not convinced it will work enough to pay itself off within years.

[wildwood]

Smells a lot like those units that you plug in and will keep away insects and vermin from your house.

Think about it Giz...................................

Right! A load of botox.

[buildersmate]

It claims to work as a phase correction device, bringing the phasing of the alternating current back into line with the alternating voltage. In electrical appliances, devices that are heavily inductive in their load, the current will lag the voltage.
In theory that sounds fine and when I was a young apprentice the engineering company I worked for had massive banks of capacitors in the Electricians' Department to do the same thing.
If you look in the small print of the claim, it states that up to 23% was saved in one device - perhaps a highly inductive fridge motor.
Its a good example of how to lie with statistics because it is in the extrapolation of this finding that the assertion that it will save 10% occurs. Unless a house has loads of inductive devices, this is complete hogwash.
Oh, and its the design company that has been on Dragons Den before, not demonstrating this device but another.

[mibn2cweus]

Plug one into every socket in the house and at the end of the month let us know if you get a check instead of a bill.

But cweusly, any net power savings would not likely be realised or measured on your side of the meter but back at the source of power distribution, i.e. if anything you'd be saving the power company (and therefore everyone on the system) money using a inefficient, marginally effective and costly method, one that in terms of overall environmental impact is doubtfully justifiable. Inductive loads should, and often do, provide power factor adjustments at the device where such measures can be better determined and would be most effective.

I tend to put some stock in Jack Flash's explanation here: http://ask.metafilter...ains-how-does-it-work

[scotman]

I agree that these are not really effective for domestic use. I looked into the situation last time this came up. UK domestic meters correct for Power Factor(PF) so you are only charged for what you make use of (kW).
My understanding is that heavy industrial users are billed for kVA and so they have one massive version of this device on their supply to correct the PF and minimise their bill.
I wouldn't bother if I was you.