A capacitive load leveler would suppress the spikes when the motor boots and recover energy when it stops. They are now common for large motors and really do reduce overall energy consumption.
AC systems’ I-V phase decoupling bleeds energy to inductive and capacitive loads. DC power supplies – computers, TVs, battery chargers – are electric company capacitive load darlings. You get billed for I-V phase spread, and the utility gets back the energy for free.
Actually, I believe electric meters typically integrate instantaneous power (I*V), so you do not pay more for unmatched I-V phase spread. However, the power company does lose, because it has I-squared-R losses in the delivery wires which wastes energy.
My understanding is that large commercial/industrial customers with (usually) inductive loads are often required by the power company to install load balancers (large caps), or they are charged an extra fee.
I looked into this a while back after seeing someone marketing a capacitive load balancing box to homeowners, claiming it would save them power. I came to the conclusion that it could save power, but would not lower your power bill (except perhaps a tiny bit, because your in house wiring also has some I2R losses, and these will show up).
A capacitive load leveler would suppress the spikes when the motor boots and recover energy when it stops. They are now common for large motors and really do reduce overall energy consumption.
AC systems’ I-V phase decoupling bleeds energy to inductive and capacitive loads. DC power supplies – computers, TVs, battery chargers – are electric company capacitive load darlings. You get billed for I-V phase spread, and the utility gets back the energy for free.
Actually, I believe electric meters typically integrate instantaneous power (I*V), so you do not pay more for unmatched I-V phase spread. However, the power company does lose, because it has I-squared-R losses in the delivery wires which wastes energy.
My understanding is that large commercial/industrial customers with (usually) inductive loads are often required by the power company to install load balancers (large caps), or they are charged an extra fee.
I looked into this a while back after seeing someone marketing a capacitive load balancing box to homeowners, claiming it would save them power. I came to the conclusion that it could save power, but would not lower your power bill (except perhaps a tiny bit, because your in house wiring also has some I2R losses, and these will show up).