Power Factor Optimization

Residential

Listings and Certifications

KVAR ECs™ are UL and CSA listed, CE certified and meets RoHS (Restriction on Hazardous Substances Directives). The RoHS compliance qualifies KVAR ECs™ as Green Products since all its electric and electronic components are premium grade compliant.

Engineering Perspective

These energy controllers reclaim, store and supply power to inductive motors and loads. Considering all induction loads consume two kinds of power: Reactive power and working power of kilowatt. The working power performs the work of the motor. The only function of reactive power is to develop the electromagnetic fields (EMFs) to ground the induction windings of the motor. The KVAR EC™ stores the reactive power needed to create EMFs within the inductive loads.

As the motor operates, this reactive power is ‘pulled and pushed’ to and from the KVAR EC™ by the motor. Reactive motor is now reclaimed and recycled by the KVAR EC™ resulting in such power being supplied on the spot. Since reactive power is supplied locally, motors run cooler and more efficiently. This results in dollar savings on your energy bill in terms of energy and electric demand being saved, and longer equipment life

Laymen's Terms

Residential

These energy controllers increase the efficiency of motors by optimizing power factor. At the main electric panel in your home, an electrician can measure power factor. This measure can be taken on each electric wire that comes through the electric meter from the electric utility. This is commonly referred to measuring power factor on “each leg”. So, for a 220 - 240 service panel, one leg brings in 110 - 120 volts and the other also brings in 110 - 120 volts. The total of the two legs make up the 220-240 electric service. Appliances and equipment need power from either one leg to operate, if they require 110 – 120 volts or both legs for 220 – 240 volts operating voltage.

When the electrician measures power factor, typically the measure is taken on each leg. Let’s say one leg register a power factor of 0.78 and the other 0.90. This tells us that this service panel is unbalanced. The breakers on side of the panel are working at an overall average efficiency or 78% efficiency while the loads on the other side of the service panel are operating at an overall average of 90% efficiency. We’ll keep it simple and say that the electric loads protected by breakers in the electric panel comprise resistive and inductive loads. Resistive loads such as baseboard heaters, dryer elements, toaster elements, hot water tank elements, etc have a power factor of 1.0 or unity. So you’ll understand these energy controllers can only influence inductive motor loads such as the refrigerator motor, sump pump, air conditioning compressor, pool pump, etc. Our certified electricians are trained to balance the load before improvements such as energy controllers can be considered. Once the load is balanced, the power factor measurements should be approximately 0.84 on each leg.

Now we can put an energy controller to work to save homeowners dollars on their electric bill. In the case at hand, we can potentially improve the average power factor or the efficiency of the electric panel from 84% to close to unity or 100%. Our certified electricians would use “sizing equipment” to introduce inductive amperage in real time through your electrical panel so that it improves the performance of your inductive motors in the home electric system. This energy controller improvement will drop the amperage drawn by the motors in the home by making them as efficient as possible with optimization at the service panel. The amperage drop will lead to a drop in kilowatt-hours and will also reduce losses in the home electrical system. Reduction in losses is can be verified by a simple inspection of motors. A resultant drop in the operating temperature of each inductive motor will contribute to extending the life of motors and reduce related maintenance dollars. That alone is good rationale for using energy controllers. Think about how hot your refrigerator motor or pool pump gets.

The improvements gained from the use of energy controllers for power factor optimization are based on the process of storing electricity in the energy controller capacitors and providing it back to the motors when needed rather wasting energy from inductive motors and then getting that energy back from the electric utility.

Commercial and Industrial

The same principles apply, except that apart from using energy controllers at a service panel to optimize a number of inductive loads using what we refer to as a “Panel unit”, we can now offer power factor optimization at individual inductive loads or motors. This makes a world of differences because the level of optimization can now really maximize the reduction in electric system and line losses from the motor load back to the utility meter. So let’s use another example. We have four rooftop compressors operating above the penthouse, 31 floors up. Once these four motors have been optimized with the kilowatt-hour benefits that ensue, we can now add to our savings equation, larger reductions in KVAR requirements, kilowatt demand and line losses on approximately 400 feet of cabling from the rooftop motors to the basement utility metering point, including losses through contactors, sub-panels, transformers, etc. Now apply this same type of example in large industrial plants and the benefits become self-evident.

Power factor Optimization versus Power Factor Correction

There are numerous engineering firms that offer power factor engineering surveys. There are also numerous vendors that offer distribution automation modeling software to model power factor correction for commercial, industrial and electric utilities. The more traditional engineering survey requires the use of reactive component charts, detailed motor specifications and scientific calculations to obtain paper based power factor correction guidelines and recommendations. The other alternative is the use of expansive modeling software to determine power factor correction that needs to be applied to a motor load infrastructure; however, the resultant is always a model. Both these methods are considered incomplete solutions. This is why the Effect – Operational Sales Group has selected a power factor optimization technology that features tested operational procedures and proven KVAR Energy Controllers.

The requirement to size the exact amount of capacitance required to bring power factor to near unity level is entrenched in our sizing survey procedures. The patent protected sizing apparatus that are used for commercial and industrial sizing surveys, together with proprietary procedures provide great accuracies and time to size efficiencies. This allows our certified crews to simplify the process of determining the amount of capacitance that is needed to optimize motor loads and panel load centers. There is no requirement for equipment charts, specifications and expansive modeling. The entire sizing process is conducted on-site by tuning the electrical system from the inductive equipment back through the electric utility meter in real-time.

Comprehensive Warranty

All KVAR ECs™ and Meter Energy Controllers are covered by a comprehensive manufacturer’s warranty

Residential Products

If within twelve (12) years from the installation date, this product fails due to a defect in material or workmanship or damage by lightning, the manufacturer will repair or replace the affected unit free of charge.

Commercial and Industrial Products

If within five (5) years from the installation date, this product fails due to a defect in material or workmanship or damage by lightning, the manufacturer will repair or replace the affected unit free of charge.

Please take a few minutes to examine our operating companies successful energy efficiency technology deployments by reviewing the Customers Tab in the About Us section.