Well engineered German light.

I'm not so sure. It will probably be an orchestrated switch as they all clamour for an extra percentage on top of the bill.

Big Clive

Perhaps once the smart meters arrive, those cheap, Chinese 'money saving power-factor correcting appliances' won't be so useless after all. Ironically, if they contain only a large capacitor they'll actually COST you money. Perhaps the smart home of the future will run combinations of capacitive and inductive appliances atthe same time to optomize the PF

Gordo

Also I don’t think uk utility suppliers will change the way they measure as it does not impact suppliers as they do not have to invest in local infrastructure, that is down to “networks”.

Graham Eida

I use the £1 per year per watt calculation too.

Big Clive

Yep, it was a bit Heath Robinson compared to today, just a friction needle in a clock face that was pushed further in any 30min period {vague memory} so NORWEB could charge us for going over our agreed maximum demand. After the BIG power bill we introduced a controlled power up for the press shop and other departments, at that time Thorn EMI produced Instantaneous water heaters, gas fires, tumble driers, cooker hoods. Our biggest "inductive loads" were the Press shop and air compressors for all the air tools used on production we had a production staff of about 800 and about 200 others. Waffle warning Our first robot was driven by punched paper tape, it was used to record a skilled operator spray painting inside a tumble drier drum. Later we changed the drum material to Zintec coated steel and left it unpainted. About 1981 they invested in 3 robotic arms to hot dip water copper heater combustion chambers,,,, what a fiasco and spiralling costs that was compared to the 3 men that used to do the job by hand, it was a hazard job dealing with Strong acid dipping 20 -30 % strength green nasty stuff it was Making sure the heat exchange did not let liquid inside the pipe work Hand dipping into a crucible of molten Lead Tin, Gas heated. Then the cleaning 20min work then 20min break and as much milk to drink as they wanted . All replaced by 3 robots electrical crucibles because the gas fumes hurt the robots 3 men to make sure the combustion chamber pipework was aligned for the robot arms 3 men to check that liquid had not got into the pipes before the hot dip Special tough screens to stop the robots having a tantrum when they went wrong due to acid getting were it should not. Modern techniques are not always safer or better ??? John

John Harrison

It's just plain old spam John, with a spoofed "From" address: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email_spoofing" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email_spoofing</a>

Chris Talbot

One rough calculation I always use is 1W for 1 year costs £1. Still holds roughly true.

Graham Eida

Power factor corrected lights are called "tungsten", aren't they? ;-) Seriously though, getting the power factor correct with a simple capacitive dropper is naturally going to have a miserable power factor; That moreso for low internal DC voltages than high ones; I imagine that a smart switching, multiple LED ladder DC circuit at over 150 VDC off nominally 230 VAC could have a pretty happy power factor with low flicker and minimal internal capacitors on the DC side; and none on the AC.

Bernd Felsche

Said American but meant Scots? Fruedian slip Clive?

Jeremy Impson

It sounds like it might have been some sort of maximum demand meter that was pushed past a pre-set limit.

Big Clive

Back in the 1980s the production plant I worked at had 5 substation inside the buildings all had power factor correction and 11KV cable a bit less than 3 inch diameter red plastic aluminium core all draped over the floor of the sub station. The press shop had quite a few large press machines some 500 Ton hence big motors A new security guard for some reason decided to help out on his 6 am round [the work hooter went at 7:30] He turned on every machine he passed so that the press shop would be ready to work, this happened every day until the utility bill turned up and my boss fainted. The main substation at the gate house had a clock like meter that register the load based on time we blew our agreed limit and had a surcharge WOW. I wish I could remember more, I think it was measured over 30min a pointer would be moved mechanically and reset via a key ? when the NORWEB guy turned up. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NORWEB" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NORWEB</a> One of my jobs was to collect all the energy figures, gas, diesel, degree days and solvent tank levels every week and provide a report, all done by hand until I brought my BBC model B computer to work to help out. It was a pain not having a printer. We added the PF meter to the report and the security guard was asked nicely not to help us anymore. John

John Harrison

You probably noticed already, but the PCB said Insta, which is a pretty serious-looking German OEM designer/manufacturer: <a href="https://www.insta.de" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.insta.de</a>

The email went to my gmail folder SPAM very odd email msg "Patreon bingo@patreon.com via mandrillapp.com " "This message has a from address in patreon.com but has failed patreon.com's required tests for authentication" John

John Harrison

Can confirm we have Toffifee in Canada.

Well, if we're talking about German Chocolates with alcohol inside, we Americans like them also when we can sneak them into the country. :)