capasitor for entire home

[hvac-learning]

whole home capasitor to reduce energy bills has anyone put them in?

[chilliwilly]

Do you mean power factor correction units? I don't think they're worth bothering with in a domestic/residential building. The amount of shifting variation in the leading and lagging power factor of loads is only small when comparing a it to a factory which will can have a lagging power factor averaging of around 0.5. Due to to the inductive loads likely to be found in there.

Your home will probably have an average power factor of around no greater than 0.1 lagging, unless of course you have lots of appliances that are mainly inductive loads. The time it would take to recoup the cost of a small pf unit wouldn't be worth it against the small saving acheived from it. So unless you have found a bargain priced unit, I don't think it would be worth the cost outlay. In the case of an airconditioning unit, if its a modern type with an invertor, the pf will be adjusted by the invertors parameter settings. Anyway watch this space for further posts.

[hvac-learning]

Thanks

[hvt]

In the case of an airconditioning unit, if its a modern type with an invertor, the pf will be adjusted by the invertors parameter settings. Anyway watch this space for further posts.

Residential power factor correction would probably be expensive, an A/C unit in a house is one of the largest and most used inductive loads...installing a start cap and potential relay and making sure that your run cap is in good shape would be a good way to go

[printer2]

Residential power meters measure real power (kWh) not VAR's. Power correction will not help you save money.

[chilliwilly]

Residential power factor correction would probably be expensive, an A/C unit in a house is one of the largest and most used inductive loads...installing a start cap and potential relay and making sure that your run cap is in good shape would be a good way to go


Yes thats right, but unless I'm missing your point here, how would installing a start cap and potential relay help? especially if the unit is invertor controlled.

[behappy]

He is asking about the "Power Save" type of units.
I know someone who installs these and he advises that on Resi. they have a long payback compared to the install price.

"IF" someone has a large house with multiple units ,refrigerators, pool pumps it is another story. On commercial buildings with many machines it is viable.

[kostasgreece]

Quote from printer2

'' Residential power meters measure real power (kWh) not VAR's. Power correction will not help you save money.''

Do a little research with your utility provider before you do anything.
Many people will promise you the sky with the stars in order to sell a crap that you dont actually need.

In Greece billing it is as printer2 noted. Utility provider for residential consumers have a different billing than industrial consumers for which power factor is critical.

Note capacitors improve cosφ, active filtering improve power factor.