Mike Holt Enterprises Electrical News Source

Buyer Beware - if it's too good to be true, it probably is!

In August of 2007, we sent out a newsletter pointing out some of the significantly overstated marketing claims by manufacturers of energy savings devices. Here we are in 2018, and it is still a significant problem!

Dan Carnovale, of Eaton, contacted us:

Raise your hand if you've seen the latest black boxes on the market that claim to save energy. At Eaton, we see it every day “ people are looking for that silver bullet to save money on their power bill. Don't be fooled by passionate salespeople who claim you are saving energy and making the world a greener place!

The misinformation that is out there is significant. Originally, power quality solutions were sold as an insurance policy to avoid potential damage from power disturbances such as transients, voltage sags, interruptions or harmonics. But more recently, many power quality solution providers found it more effective to promote energy cost reduction associated with their products rather than to deal with the soft savings associated with minimizing downtime or reducing damage to electrical equipment.

Unfortunately, many of the providers significantly overstated the savings and the customers were deceived.

At the Eaton Power Systems Experience Center (PSEC www.eaton.com/experience), we have tested many of these black boxes on real residential, commercial and industrial power systems to help you understand how much energy you can really save. The disappointing truth is that there is very little or no energy to be saved. We created a video that shows real life examples of fake solutions versus real solutions. The video helps demystify energy savings and shows you important considerations to evaluate before you make a purchase.

Check out our resources that were created to help consumers buying products that claim to save energy by clarifying the actual savings:

Even with all of the information available, we still test two or more of these devices every month. Save your money!

To give feedback, Post a Comment below, or contact Eaton directly by emailing Dan Carnovale
Comments

  • It looks like the Staten Island Hustle guys didn't see this post.

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2018/04/18/staten-island-hustle-the-energy-box-saves-money-on-electric-bills.html

    This was just on TV a week ago.

    So, how did they think they saved 14%? First of all, they compared this year to last year. I would ask two questions: 1) When did you upgrade your lights to LED? (yes, most of us have and we have actually saved energy by doing so) 2) Did you happen to notice that we have had the worst/coldest spring in a long time - probably didn't use much AC this spring so there is the rest of your savings?

    For once, I'd really like to see one of these guys selling the magic boxes show actual watts on the meter that they are demonstrating.

    Finally, part of the mystique in these devices is a lack of understanding of our utility bills. You don't get billed for an instantaneous peak current/inrush from motors, etc. Residential customers only get billed for kWH and larger customers get demand charges but they are typically averaged over 15 minutes not over a few seconds so the result is negligible.

    Dan Carnovale  April 26 2018, 2:37 pm EDT
    Reply to this comment

  • The more things change, the more they remain the same!

    New generation, same old scams!

    Heinz Rosen  March 28 2018, 7:14 pm EDT
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  • I ran into this years ago while working for the utility. Many. Customers thought I was biased. I began asking for reports fron a PE documenting the savings. The venders disappeared. In 13 years, I never got a report from a PE.

    Tony P. Simmons, PE  March 28 2018, 1:33 am EDT
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  • In the future it would be beneficial for us all if there were a time stamp or something similar on video feeds we are prompted to click. In this thread the "Black Box Demo" video .. which ended up being a 14min feed

    I chose instead to spend the time to ask you to be more empathetic

    Scot

    Scot  March 27 2018, 11:48 pm EDT
    Reply to this comment

  • Bravo Mike

    Very good bringing Eaton on board.

    This burns me that with some many problems to be solved that there are people who have to cut corners to make it in this world.

    Jerry Fiorentino  March 27 2018, 11:45 pm EDT
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