Scam Opinion by Open4Energy
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The "Go4Green EnergySmart plug-in unit claims to save on rising electricity bills by reducing the distribution losses within motors in the home. Further, and possibly of greater concern is the fact that the reseller DealMe is promoting this product as having been tested and Approved for Australian homes.
In fairness to DealMe, we state for the record that the 'deal' is listed as closed. But in fairness to the truth we wonder why they have not taken the product off their site and apologized to any consumers who they facilitated being misled.
Copy of the email sent to DealMe - then their response - you decide!
Dear Deals Direct,
Please be advised that this product is a scam. I am a qualified electronic engineer with 40+ years' experience, and I can tell you beyond all doubt there is no way that plugging a device into a power outlet can significantly reduce the energy usage in a home. At the very margin an improvement in power factor will reduce wiring losses. I did a calculation a couple of years ago on exactly that topic, and concluded that savings would be at the very most 1.6% of the power consumed by a given motor (not a whole house). The calculation is reproduced below my signature (I did it for a contact in the USA).
There has also been quite a bit written about these scams in Silicon Chip magazine. here and here.
I am extremely disappointed in Deals Direct. While some of the product I have bought from you have not been of the very best quality, that's something I can live with. A scam product is a whole different matter. I will be charitable, and assume you lack the technical capability to make an evaluation yourselves. I will also suggest you withdraw it from sale immediately, for the sake of your reputation.
Please also see the last paragraph here. This article is the most read page on the topic on the whole Internet. See also this. And this authoritative paper by the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Respectfully,
David Stonier-Gibson, B. App. Sc
Managing Director
Copy of email response from DealMe - you decide!
Hi David,
Thanks for your email and very valuable comments.
I'll pass the details of your email onto our Account Manager who deals with this product.
Thank you again for your feedback.
This will definitely assist us to improve our site and Deals on offer in future.
Regards, Dana
In our recent 5 part expose' of energy scams, the whole point of article three titled feeding on consumer energy scams was aimed at identifying the slew of companies looking to make a profit out of green energy hype. In my opinion, this was a tardy reply to a well presented problem. I do hope that DealMe will soon have this nasty product page removed from their site. I am open to include this fact when informed that this has been done!
On the business ethics; this worship of money truly is the root of all evil!
It is important that we are clear on the distinction between a product that scams consumers by exaggerated claims of electricity saving through pfc and a product that scams consumers by claiming it does pfc when it does not. We do not understand how this product could carry out pfc, but even if it could it would not save a consumer money!
It is also important to understand that the issues we raise are only applicable to home owners. Commercial companies and industrial users do require power factor correction for the improved reliability of their electrical equipment, to save electricity, and to save on their electrical bill
There is truth in the fact that our homes have devices which consume electricity at lower power factors. As an example we know that "CFL light bulbs" have a Power factor of between 55% and 70%, while incandescent light bulbs have a power factor of 100%. All electric motors, including fridges, air conditioners, fans and computers generate reactive power which will affect their power factor.
Based on the above information it could sound logical that a pfc technology would save money for a home owner. But this is NOT a correct conclusion at all. Improving a consumers power factor will mostly save a "negligible" amount of electricity. I have correct my earlier opinion of "NO saving" to "usually negligible" thanks to an informative discussion with the founder of V-Blox Mr David Mulvaney.
When the power factor is less than 100% it means that there is a phase shift between voltage and current. Consumer tariffs are based on Real Power, only the electricity actually consumed by a device. The consumer electrical tariffs include provision for the losses which this "out of phase" might cause the electricity supplier.
It is true that electricity suppliers need to manage their distribution networks, and that power factor IS one of the factors that impacts their distribution losses. It is also true that large industrial users are charged a penalty for a net power factor of less than 85%. But distribution losses will not typically be solved by consumers. They are aggregate issues that can only be solved by the utility companies "the smart grid" in partnership with industry and device manufacturers.
Power factor and power factor correction are indeed subjects that we should be aware of, but it is "near fraud" when excessively marketed to home owners as a way to save money on their electricity bill.
We have an overview on "Power Factor"and the definitions for real power, apparent power and reactive power for those who would like to understand more of the technical details on this topic.
SmartEnergy - Get Smart about Energy™
If this article has helped you please take a moment to Contact us and share how. We hope you will invest in learning about energy by reviewing our Knowledge Directories - information on products that will help you save energy.
The "Go4Green EnergySmart plug-in unit claims to save on rising electricity bills by reducing the distribution losses within motors in the home. Further, and possibly of greater concern is the fact that the reseller DealMe is promoting this product as having been tested and Approved for Australian homes.In fairness to DealMe, we state for the record that the 'deal' is listed as closed. But in fairness to the truth we wonder why they have not taken the product off their site and apologized to any consumers who they facilitated being misled.
Copy of the email sent to DealMe - then their response - you decide!
Dear Deals Direct,
Please be advised that this product is a scam. I am a qualified electronic engineer with 40+ years' experience, and I can tell you beyond all doubt there is no way that plugging a device into a power outlet can significantly reduce the energy usage in a home. At the very margin an improvement in power factor will reduce wiring losses. I did a calculation a couple of years ago on exactly that topic, and concluded that savings would be at the very most 1.6% of the power consumed by a given motor (not a whole house). The calculation is reproduced below my signature (I did it for a contact in the USA).
There has also been quite a bit written about these scams in Silicon Chip magazine. here and here.
I am extremely disappointed in Deals Direct. While some of the product I have bought from you have not been of the very best quality, that's something I can live with. A scam product is a whole different matter. I will be charitable, and assume you lack the technical capability to make an evaluation yourselves. I will also suggest you withdraw it from sale immediately, for the sake of your reputation.
Please also see the last paragraph here. This article is the most read page on the topic on the whole Internet. See also this. And this authoritative paper by the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Respectfully,
David Stonier-Gibson, B. App. Sc
Managing Director
Copy of email response from DealMe - you decide!
Hi David,
Thanks for your email and very valuable comments.
I'll pass the details of your email onto our Account Manager who deals with this product.
Thank you again for your feedback.
This will definitely assist us to improve our site and Deals on offer in future.
Regards, Dana
In our recent 5 part expose' of energy scams, the whole point of article three titled feeding on consumer energy scams was aimed at identifying the slew of companies looking to make a profit out of green energy hype. In my opinion, this was a tardy reply to a well presented problem. I do hope that DealMe will soon have this nasty product page removed from their site. I am open to include this fact when informed that this has been done!
On the business ethics; this worship of money truly is the root of all evil!
It is important that we are clear on the distinction between a product that scams consumers by exaggerated claims of electricity saving through pfc and a product that scams consumers by claiming it does pfc when it does not. We do not understand how this product could carry out pfc, but even if it could it would not save a consumer money!
It is also important to understand that the issues we raise are only applicable to home owners. Commercial companies and industrial users do require power factor correction for the improved reliability of their electrical equipment, to save electricity, and to save on their electrical bill
There is truth in the fact that our homes have devices which consume electricity at lower power factors. As an example we know that "CFL light bulbs" have a Power factor of between 55% and 70%, while incandescent light bulbs have a power factor of 100%. All electric motors, including fridges, air conditioners, fans and computers generate reactive power which will affect their power factor.
Based on the above information it could sound logical that a pfc technology would save money for a home owner. But this is NOT a correct conclusion at all. Improving a consumers power factor will mostly save a "negligible" amount of electricity. I have correct my earlier opinion of "NO saving" to "usually negligible" thanks to an informative discussion with the founder of V-Blox Mr David Mulvaney.
When the power factor is less than 100% it means that there is a phase shift between voltage and current. Consumer tariffs are based on Real Power, only the electricity actually consumed by a device. The consumer electrical tariffs include provision for the losses which this "out of phase" might cause the electricity supplier.
It is true that electricity suppliers need to manage their distribution networks, and that power factor IS one of the factors that impacts their distribution losses. It is also true that large industrial users are charged a penalty for a net power factor of less than 85%. But distribution losses will not typically be solved by consumers. They are aggregate issues that can only be solved by the utility companies "the smart grid" in partnership with industry and device manufacturers.
Power factor and power factor correction are indeed subjects that we should be aware of, but it is "near fraud" when excessively marketed to home owners as a way to save money on their electricity bill.
We have an overview on "Power Factor"and the definitions for real power, apparent power and reactive power for those who would like to understand more of the technical details on this topic.
SmartEnergy - Get Smart about Energy™