Re: 3000 sq ft 1890's Victorian in Central NY

You got my attentiion :^)

I had no idea that anyone was or would try to market these devices to homeowners.  So little of the typical household load is reactive power.  Major Appliances like water heaters, dryers, resistance heaters, iron, coffee pot, toaster, etc... have a pf of almost 1.0  A proper pool pump should run at .9 or better, A/C sucks at startup .2-.4 but should criuse at close to .9 as well.

Motors and fluorescent lamps usually have lagging power factors, while modern high efficiency power supplies generate leading factors.  Of course motor pulls a lot more lagging than an iPod draws leadin...

I'd be curious as to who is pushing residential versions?   I'm offering PF correction as an option on the big 500kW units... Since we operate our gensets 'synchronously' we could tune the unit to provide reactive power VAR, as opposed to VA or pure power.  Of course we're really talking kVA & kVAR.

I'm glad that someone besides me is warning folks about 'placebos' or 'wishful thinking' devices, that are more about a quick sale than real results.

Again, these devices are common at industrial sites.  If your 200 ton arc-melting furnaces are performing badly the utility will insist you clean up your power factor.