Do you know what your Power Factor is? And more importantly, do you know how you can raise it? Power Factor is a Department of Energy-promoted measure of how efficiently you're using power (explained here). DoE says, "low power factor is expensive and inefficient." Low power factor reduces your electrical system's distribution capacity by increasing current flow and causing voltage drops.
Do you know what your Power Factor is? And more importantly, do you know how you can raise it?
Power Factor is a Department of Energy-promoted measure of how efficiently you're using power (explained here). DoE says, "low power factor is expensive and inefficient." Low power factor reduces your electrical system's distribution capacity by increasing current flow and causing voltage drops.Ideally, everyone wants a Power Factor of 1. DoE studies indicate that the average US residence has a Power Factor of .77 This means there's plenty of room for improvement. Commercial and institutional power is not likely to fare as well as residential on their Power Factor score, and there's usually plenty of savings waiting to be discovered.
My guess is that many don't know what Power Factor is and if reading the DoE's analogy of the horse pulling a railroad car doesn't paint the picture you need to understand Power Factor, then stick to the math. You can save anywhere from 5-25 percent of your energy consumption just by improving how your electrical distribution farms out energy. We do know that most residences and businesses can improve their Power Factor score.
What causes Power Factor scores to be less than ideal?
Your electrical distribution system is a network. The big pipe coming in is the load provided by the power company to connect to your distribution panel. This panel redistributes the big load to a network of smaller loads and from there energy is piped out to sub-panels as needed throughout the organization. Then, devices are connected to these circuits. For qualifying purposes- here's what you look for:
Age of equipment connected, motors, pumps, non-Energy Star compliant equipment, blowers, fans, cooling and heating gear, and compressors. This pretty much applies to almost any residence or business. The gear listed and used in these cases may not be as efficient at using power as they should be. The technology supporting capacitors and capacitor banks has been around for years, but because the past low cost per kWh (kilowatt hour), the technology wasn't producing cost benefits. However, enterprise customers normally are rewarded with lower kilowatt-hour rates when their usage goes over certain rate classifications with the utility companies.
Power Factor is measurable and if it can be measured, then it can be managed and that's the good news.
A few months ago, my wife sent me a press release about Frederick County Public Schools adopting a technology that could save the schools $650,000 annually on their power bill. Of course that got Mr. Green's attention, so I ran down the press release back to the company that donated a unit to this public school system.
Power-Save Energy Corporation (PWSV) is based in San Luis Obispo, California and headed by Michael Forster, Founder and CEO. They offer three panel devices that improve the Power Factor of residential and commercial power. The three models are:
The devices simply attach to the electrical panel and require one breaker, both slots for connection. You may need to size the attached sleeve that costs less than $15. You don't necessarily need to install a unit on every panel- unless the panel is serving power needs that include the items listed above:
The benefits of using the Power-Save devices are:
I spoke with Power-Save to find out the minimal savings on residences or businesses that have already employed power saving techniques and changed gear to Energy Star compliant equipment, and they stated 5% is the low end while 25% savings is the high end. Results do vary because of all the variables listed above- age of equipment connected, blowers, fans...
Now, the tricky part is going to be rates and tariffs vs. enterprises claiming to be green. I spoke with the commercial group at Allegheny Power, and different rates and discounts apply to different customers based upon load. Penalties do apply but they vary among utility companies, as do the rates. Many enterprise accounts just don't bother with the capacitor banks such as Power-Save. As the nation moves towards market-based rates, then more attention to Power Factor and other energy efficiencies will likely develop. Until then, Large-enterprises go on wasting power unnoticed, but they'd better not claim being green, because that's greenwashing. Greenwashing does more corporate credibility damage than good, when unsubstantiated claims are made about saving energy, reversing negative environmental trends, and lowering carbon footprint. Even with market-based rates, unless the utility companies remove the reward for enterprises using more or too much power, then the incentive to save energy greatly diminishes.
As a side note: capacitors store energy. The energy dilemma that we are all faced with involves making clean, renewable energy sources, transferring energy, and then storing energy. Each of these areas presents challenges, thus the energy industry favors us with the term: "the Energy Straightjacket."
Since Frederick County Public Schools (FCPS) is local to me, I also got in touch with Charlie Dalphon over at FCPS, and we talked about the installation of the Power-Save at the Adult Education building in Walkersville, Maryland. Charlie stated, the device has been installed for three weeks and they have a data logger installed to verify the savings in energy. Thus far, they've seen a 12% reduction in the building electricity and are excited about the results, and are planning other installations of Power-Save devices in other schools. Charlie originally hoped for a 10% reduction to net a $650,000 annual energy savings. Charlie is very motivated because he knows that $650,000 can buy a lot of books, pencils and add teacher salary dollars to the budget instead of spending it on wasted energy.
My first shipment of Power-Save units arrived. We installed number 1 to coincide with our next scheduled meter reading. We have our own Charlie- and he's our electrician, and he was too busy re-wiring our campus customer (another story). Another one of our campus sites has twelve three-phase, 200 amp panels and they are now assessing each panel to determine which ones should have the capacitors. Then, we have a property manager in charge of a dozen or so low rise buildings and all the tenants are complaining about the high cost of power. In many tenant situations, power is pro-rated and this can be very unfair to tenants that aren't using a lot of energy as opposed to an IT company sucking up juice to run servers. Since it's not practical to individually meter office spaces, pro-rated utility pass-throughs have been the accepted (and overlooked) method for many years.
Using capacitors such as the Power-Save are one-time investments and you aren't giving up anything. The last point I want to make is that, you see, there's always opportunity in telecommunications. Telecom folks have been indirectly in the power business for years and just didn't know it.
The devices simply attach to the electrical panel and require one breaker, both slots for connection. You may need to size the attached sleeve that costs less than $15. You don't necessarily need to install a unit on every panel- unless the panel is serving power needs that include the items listed above:
The benefits of using the Power-Save devices are:
I spoke with Power-Save to find out the minimal savings on residences or businesses that have already employed power saving techniques and changed gear to Energy Star compliant equipment, and they stated 5% is the low end while 25% savings is the high end. Results do vary because of all the variables listed above- age of equipment connected, blowers, fans...
Now, the tricky part is going to be rates and tariffs vs. enterprises claiming to be green. I spoke with the commercial group at Allegheny Power, and different rates and discounts apply to different customers based upon load. Penalties do apply but they vary among utility companies, as do the rates. Many enterprise accounts just don't bother with the capacitor banks such as Power-Save. As the nation moves towards market-based rates, then more attention to Power Factor and other energy efficiencies will likely develop. Until then, Large-enterprises go on wasting power unnoticed, but they'd better not claim being green, because that's greenwashing. Greenwashing does more corporate credibility damage than good, when unsubstantiated claims are made about saving energy, reversing negative environmental trends, and lowering carbon footprint. Even with market-based rates, unless the utility companies remove the reward for enterprises using more or too much power, then the incentive to save energy greatly diminishes.
As a side note: capacitors store energy. The energy dilemma that we are all faced with involves making clean, renewable energy sources, transferring energy, and then storing energy. Each of these areas presents challenges, thus the energy industry favors us with the term: "the Energy Straightjacket."
Since Frederick County Public Schools (FCPS) is local to me, I also got in touch with Charlie Dalphon over at FCPS, and we talked about the installation of the Power-Save at the Adult Education building in Walkersville, Maryland. Charlie stated, the device has been installed for three weeks and they have a data logger installed to verify the savings in energy. Thus far, they've seen a 12% reduction in the building electricity and are excited about the results, and are planning other installations of Power-Save devices in other schools. Charlie originally hoped for a 10% reduction to net a $650,000 annual energy savings. Charlie is very motivated because he knows that $650,000 can buy a lot of books, pencils and add teacher salary dollars to the budget instead of spending it on wasted energy.
My first shipment of Power-Save units arrived. We installed number 1 to coincide with our next scheduled meter reading. We have our own Charlie- and he's our electrician, and he was too busy re-wiring our campus customer (another story). Another one of our campus sites has twelve three-phase, 200 amp panels and they are now assessing each panel to determine which ones should have the capacitors. Then, we have a property manager in charge of a dozen or so low rise buildings and all the tenants are complaining about the high cost of power. In many tenant situations, power is pro-rated and this can be very unfair to tenants that aren't using a lot of energy as opposed to an IT company sucking up juice to run servers. Since it's not practical to individually meter office spaces, pro-rated utility pass-throughs have been the accepted (and overlooked) method for many years.
Using capacitors such as the Power-Save are one-time investments and you aren't giving up anything. The last point I want to make is that, you see, there's always opportunity in telecommunications. Telecom folks have been indirectly in the power business for years and just didn't know it.
I spoke with Power-Save to find out the minimal savings on residences or businesses that have already employed power saving techniques and changed gear to Energy Star compliant equipment, and they stated 5% is the low end while 25% savings is the high end. Results do vary because of all the variables listed above- age of equipment connected, blowers, fans...
Now, the tricky part is going to be rates and tariffs vs. enterprises claiming to be green. I spoke with the commercial group at Allegheny Power, and different rates and discounts apply to different customers based upon load. Penalties do apply but they vary among utility companies, as do the rates. Many enterprise accounts just don't bother with the capacitor banks such as Power-Save. As the nation moves towards market-based rates, then more attention to Power Factor and other energy efficiencies will likely develop. Until then, Large-enterprises go on wasting power unnoticed, but they'd better not claim being green, because that's greenwashing. Greenwashing does more corporate credibility damage than good, when unsubstantiated claims are made about saving energy, reversing negative environmental trends, and lowering carbon footprint. Even with market-based rates, unless the utility companies remove the reward for enterprises using more or too much power, then the incentive to save energy greatly diminishes.
As a side note: capacitors store energy. The energy dilemma that we are all faced with involves making clean, renewable energy sources, transferring energy, and then storing energy. Each of these areas presents challenges, thus the energy industry favors us with the term: "the Energy Straightjacket."
Since Frederick County Public Schools (FCPS) is local to me, I also got in touch with Charlie Dalphon over at FCPS, and we talked about the installation of the Power-Save at the Adult Education building in Walkersville, Maryland. Charlie stated, the device has been installed for three weeks and they have a data logger installed to verify the savings in energy. Thus far, they've seen a 12% reduction in the building electricity and are excited about the results, and are planning other installations of Power-Save devices in other schools. Charlie originally hoped for a 10% reduction to net a $650,000 annual energy savings. Charlie is very motivated because he knows that $650,000 can buy a lot of books, pencils and add teacher salary dollars to the budget instead of spending it on wasted energy.
My first shipment of Power-Save units arrived. We installed number 1 to coincide with our next scheduled meter reading. We have our own Charlie- and he's our electrician, and he was too busy re-wiring our campus customer (another story). Another one of our campus sites has twelve three-phase, 200 amp panels and they are now assessing each panel to determine which ones should have the capacitors. Then, we have a property manager in charge of a dozen or so low rise buildings and all the tenants are complaining about the high cost of power. In many tenant situations, power is pro-rated and this can be very unfair to tenants that aren't using a lot of energy as opposed to an IT company sucking up juice to run servers. Since it's not practical to individually meter office spaces, pro-rated utility pass-throughs have been the accepted (and overlooked) method for many years.
Using capacitors such as the Power-Save are one-time investments and you aren't giving up anything. The last point I want to make is that, you see, there's always opportunity in telecommunications. Telecom folks have been indirectly in the power business for years and just didn't know it.
