new scam

One rarely sees such bank scams these days. They used to come in the emails by the droves.

But here is a new twist on an old scam. I received an email from a lady I know in Colorado yesterday selling an amazing new device that will save you hundreds and even thousands of dollars on your electric bills for the unheard of price of only $599. I went to the website shown and checked out the specs. There are only 3 wires coming out of the device so that immediately tells us that one is a ground and the other two are hooked to the two hot legs of a 220 line. Then it to state that the device has a capacity of 30 MFD. (Microfarads). Split that in half and we know that we are going to place a 15 MFD capacitor across each leg of the incoming 220 line. We also know that a digital voltmeter placed across the 220 line will probably read around 230 to as much as 240 volts at times. Next we want to know what the voltage rating of those capacitors might be. In order to know that we must know the maximum voltage that will appear across each capacitor. We will start with 125 volts across each capacitor and multiply that times 1.55 to get the Peak to Peak value. That tells us that if we use 250 volt capacitors we will have a great safety factor so they don't blow out too easily. Now we head down to the local electrical supply house and we should be able to buy a couple of capacitors like that for less than $25.00. Add another $10 for wire, some brush-on liquid electrical tape, some heat shrink tubing and some regular black electrical tape plus a small plastic drinking glass and you have exactly the same thing they want $599 for.

So what is this amazing gadget going to do for you? It will shunt a few spikes out of the incoming power and might make your light bulbs and appliances last a little longer but not enough for you to notice the difference. How much electricity will it save? None whatever!! And all for the low, low price of only $599. Of course, you can make big, big bucks by becoming an affiliate marketer.

 

Shave your head, and you save wattage, you save on shampoo, you want catch pneumonia, and you will never have another bad hair day.

 

Putting a capacitor across the power line has absolutely nothing to do with either amps or watts. Since E=I times R, where E=voltage, I=amps and R=resistance and capacitors have no internal resistance a capacitor cannot have any effect on power consumption. Capacitor's are effectively open circuits. They act somewhat like batteries since they store electricity. In the suggested configuration they store excess energy from spikes and return electricity if the voltage drops. They can also block electricity or allow it to pass depending on frequency. But they cannot do anything to save money on your electric bill as advertised. Also, since W=V times I and I is a function of R the only way to cut power consumption would be to reduce the resistance of the heating element in a hair dryer and then it would not heat so well any more as JJgross just stated.

 

You've been in my town???