[TheForge] Re: illinois electrical rates

[Mike Spencer]

> (2) It may only be an urban myth, but I've heard that high-speed motors (ex.
> grinders) really excite an electrical meter. I've also heard that
> electricity can be passed through a three-phase motor generator and still
> make great savings on an electrical bill--even with the energy loss by doing
> so.

A guy with an MIT electrical engineering degree once told me something
like this:

    The meter multiplies voltage times amperage to compute power. AC V
    and A normally have a known phase relation upon which the meter
    design is based. If you put a big inductor into the line, it
    throws the phase relationship way off normal.  If you do it right,
    the product of A and V decreases enormously.

His account was of someone known to him who had stuck a big coil -- a
large motor, IIRC -- into his house circuit and cut his electric bill
by a big percentage.

I think  that might work for resistive loads.  Since most electric
motors depend on the phase relation to work, I doubt that your fridge,
bench grinder or power hammer would like it.

And of course, assuming it works as alleged, it's a fraudulent
practice.

He had another tale of a guy who built a carefully designed inductive
device, disguised it as a rusty junkheap, and place it under
high-tension power lines where they crossed his pasture, then drew 110
AC from his device.  I dunno if that would constitute theft or not,
seeing as how the powerco was radiating an unsolicited electric field
onto his pasture. There are accounts of cows being electrocuted under
high-tension lines in wet weather because their front and hind feet
were far enough part that they acted as inductors for a lethal
current.



- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^