Vphase - 220v voltage optimisation - anyone used one or have any opinions ?

[Mark Grant]

Anyone ever used on of these :

http://www.vphase.co.uk/

(This is nothing to do with hifi, it is an energy saving device)

My mains voltage at home is nearly always 240v within one or two volts.

I would keep my Hi-Fi and AV supply separate from this as its on its own circuits and I dont want anything that could possibly be noisy on the supply, just for the lighting and all the other sockets in the house, the boiler so the pumps uses less etc.

So what devices would use less electricity and 220 volts rather then 240 volts ?

Any opinions ?

-

[Reid Malenfant]

So what devices would use less electricity and 220 volts rather then 240 volts ?
The only thing i can think of is an incandescent bulb :lolsign:

I really think there is some serious cobblers being mentioned on that site :rolleyes:

A home computer will use the same amount of electricity at 220V as 250V due to it's switchmode power supply. It simply uses wider pulse width to generate the same DC rail voltage. The result could be an actual incease in power usage due to higher current being drawn due to the lower voltage & switching efficiency lowering as a consequence :scratch:

A refrigerator will use less will it? Funny but as the compressor is not able to cool as well i'd expect it to actually be on more often :eyebrows:

CFLs will use the same amount of power due to being powered by a miniature SMPS.

The central heating boiler pump will shift less water & the result will be a cooler house so you'd speed it up or turn up the heating :doh:


I smell snake oil :lolsign:

[Reid Malenfant]

That thing has been bothering me so i went through all the videos & found one where i got a view of it's guts ;) I feel pretty sure i now know how it works & there are definately going to be situations where that unit will actually increase your electricity usage simply because it needs power to operate & there are going to be losses in the (what i'm sure is a 500VA tapped 20V transformer) transformer.

Don't go there, i wouldn't touch one with a shitty stick :rolleyes:

If you want more of an explaination of how i think it works then i'll do my best with a circuit diagram etc.

[goraman]

Going green is a pile of steaming crap.
It is always good to conserve energy if you can but reducing CO2 is a pointless waste of time and money.

[Reid Malenfant]

It's a good bit of baloney imo Jeff, like i say there are an increasing number of situations where this thing will increase your power consumption. Anything with an SMPS (switch mode power supply).

It will save power with an incandescent bulb but at the expense of a dimmer light. It won't with a kettle, it'll use more! Newtons laws of thermodynamics cannot be broken. If the voltage is lower there will be less heat input & it'll take longer to boil water. The only difference is this thing will add to your leccy bill whilst doing it :eek:

Yes, the kettle itself will use less juice, but over a longer period so it evens out. Factor in the power lost in the unit & it uses more :eek:

Load of hokum imo :rolleyes: