Crowdfunding campaigns or wide product announcements that do not make sense pops up every now and then. It seems that energy related “inventions” seems to be getting easily into the spotlight without proven merits:
Hackaday article Crowdfunding Follies: Proof That Ohm’s Law Is Arcane Knowledge tells about a special cell phone case Kickstarter (Nikola Phone Case from Nikola Labs) that claims to recharge your battery by capturing radio energy put out by the cell phone itself. This means capturing RF from the WiFi and cellular transmitters. It’s been featured on dozens of tech blogs, wowed judges at TechCrunch Disrupt, and it’s a Kickstarter Staff Pick. It’s also proof that nearly everyone in the media who claims any knowledge of technology has no idea behind the foundational properties of technology. Astonishingly, this is not a perpetual motion machine, a device that is completely impractical, or an outright fraud. It’s deceptively correct when it comes to the physics of this device, and as always implementation is everything. This phone case will actually harvest RF energy, but it will never be able to extend the life of the phone’s battery because dramatic decrease in reception and most likely an increase in power draw due to the phone increasing its transmit power.The company claims that ” Nikola technology slows the rate at which the phone’s internal battery discharges, without impacting data transmission rates or call quality“, but I fins this hard to believe. There is simply no excuse why hundreds of people would give tens of thousands of dollars to a company that makes outrageous claims with zero evidence.
I earlier posted on one such example at Extending Alkaline Battery Life article. Batteriser is a $2.50 gadget that promises to extend disposable battery life by 800 percent. It is was hard for me to buy this kind of claims – and it turned ou that they did not hold. Dave Jones from EEVBlog has put together a great video on the how comes and why nots of the Batteriser.
Here is another one on the same series: Turn Your Windows Into Outlets With These Sticky Solar Chargers article tells about Yanko Design, Kyuho Song and Boa Oh’s design concepts for a suction-cup-equipped solar power charger provides an elegant solution to all our power needs. The charger sticks to the window, exposing solar panels to the sun on one side, with an outlet to plug in a device on the reverse. According to their mockups, the device would take five to eight hours to fully charge, and would provide 10 hours of electricity at that point. This device looks very nice, but it also has a practical problem – it does not workas advertized: A tiny tiny solar cell can just NOT produce a decent amount of energy to power anything but a mobile phone (or a tiny LED lamp) for a short period of time because the laws of physics. After a full day of sunshine this device (assuming it has a battery inside) will have stored some power, but maybe just enough to power your mobile for short time. The solar panel is so small that it will be very low power.
Viral ‘Solar Window Outlet’ Cannot Possibly Work article points out that all solar power technology is limited by one pesky little constant: the maximum amount of solar energy striking any representative section of the planet is generally about one kilowatt per square meter. The device can only have about 50 square centimeters of photovoltaic surface and with with PV surface efficiency of 10-15 percent, we will end up less than 1W maximum power when sun is shining. Squeezing a power inverter into a hockey-puck-sized container does not leave much space to battery and eats up the system efficiency. The most charitable interpretation of the solar outlet is that the designers “created” it as an exercise in visual design without actually consulting an electrical engineer.If you want at least charge your mobile using solar power, you will find better and cheaper solutions. But be warned that generally solar phone chargers may not be the answer – because these chargers normally need seven to eight hours of exposure to the sun to charge themselves.
Pavegen: The Company that can’t make energy out of crowds tries to make money out of them article tells that a company selling floor tiles which extract tiny, pointless amounts of energy from crowds walking across them is seeking fresh investment through the medium of crowdfunding. Had the designer been a real engineer, of course, Mr Kemball-Cook would swiftly have realised that the total amount of energy one can generate using human bodies – far less the even tinier amount of energy one can generate by placing tiles under people’s feet as they walk by – is utterly insignificant compared to the energy demands of modern civilisation. They look really rather pointless. Maybe they had some use: But what about about all the Big Footfall Data? You could find out all KINDS of stuff from that!
Eco products to save energy seems to be market where there are many products that do not live up to the claims. There are many Eco products you don’t need. Eco products you don’t need article shows you a plethora of eco products on the market that don’t live up to their claims of helping you save money on your energy bills. Although their technology might sounds convincing, many products have no effect on energy use – and one product even increased it.
Just two years ago there was an Indiegogo to sell a perpetual motion machine. Free energy machines of the type this particular inventor imagines are everywhere; just do a quick YouTube search to see. Perpetual motion cranks always seem to trot out Tesla, thus betraying their own ignorance of power generation.
Is this is the end of capitalism or accelerated version of it - no need to innovate and make a better mouse trap. All you need to do is convince enough people that you’ve made a better mouse trap. Has things changed to worse lately or has it been this bad all the time? It it just fact of life that products that do not work as claimed are common in every marketplace (Think of worthless vitamins and supplements, gimmicky exercise machines, love potions, gadgets to make your car run on water, etc., etc.).
Is the situation this bad? Do you disagree me on this? Please write a comment.
48 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
At least two out of three of the innovations said to be promising in this article are not anywhere as good as claimed:
Three Battery Innovations That Could Change Everything
http://architechnologist.com/three-battery-innovations-that-could-change-everything/#.Vcw2WflLZ4A
Tomi Engdahl says:
Free energy batteries?
http://www.epanorama.net/newepa/2010/07/02/free-energy-batteries/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Where Are They Now: Terrible Kickstarters
http://hackaday.com/2015/08/14/where-are-they-now-terrible-kickstarters/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Batteriser: scam or savior?
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/brians-brain/4440136/The-Batteriser–scam-or-savior-?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20150819&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20150819&elq=ccfbff5cca934d46b7db97e5c65a40e6&elqCampaignId=24438&elqaid=27614&elqat=1&elqTrackId=146b3228c5ec43248f075d82eca5c678
Founding company Batteroo’s pitch is rich with intrigue and compelling claims:
Industrial espionage,
Up to 8x longer battery life
Products that “pay for themselves with the first set of revived batteries”
And at minimum, the Batteriser, “crafted from stainless steel at 0.1 mm thin,” represents an impressive Moore’s Law case study of the now-possible extreme miniaturization of today’s DC voltage boost and regulation capabilities. But what, if any, reality is there behind founder Bob Roohparvar’s boasts? Plenty of detractors exist; see, for example, the commentary at Hackaday and Slashdot. Here are my thoughts.
In his pitch to PC World’s Jon Phillips, Roohparvar reportedly showed via a “power meter” that adding the Batteriser to an AA battery that had been drained to 1.3V restored the battery’s like-new 1.5V output capabilities. I’ve no doubt that this is possible, but the “power meter” likely put a scant current demand on the setup. The Batteriser-boosted battery might not have fared nearly as well under more typical applications (“wireless keyboards, game console controllers, TV remotes, digital scales, blood pressure monitors, toys, and (of course) the ubiquitous flashlight”), especially when drained all the way down to 0.6V as Roohparvar suggests is feasible.
Secondly, why couldn’t the requisite boost and regulation circuitry alternatively be located within the powered device itself? In fact, as you likely already realize, it frequently is
What about Batteroo’s cost-savings claims? Each AA-sized Batteriser is forecast to cost $2.50; that’s $10 for a four-pack, plus the prices of the batteries themselves. But I recently came across a 100-pack of alkaline AAs for $15. Even if you buy into Roohparvar’s pitch that a single Batteriser-enhanced AA can replace eight conventional counterparts, the comparative math just doesn’t add up … especially if, as Dave Jones claims, use of the Batteriser might lead to a short circuit-induced system fire.
And what about Batteroo’s advocacy about keeping an excessive drained-battery count out of landfills, which would normally resonate strongly with an avowed environmentalist such as me? Thankfully, batteries are no longer mercury-filled
At the end of the day, although I commend Batteroo on its miniaturization achievement, I struggle to find a strong commercialization market opportunity for it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Home> Community > Blogs > Brian’s Brain
The Batteriser: defenders and detractors
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/brians-brain/4440366/The-Batteriser–defenders-and-detractors?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_consumerelectronics_20150923&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_consumerelectronics_20150923&elq=d07f37fdef3c4ad984043f962359f59a&elqCampaignId=24896&elqaid=28243&elqat=1&elqTrackId=a6394d42bf294b889e8e08119dc9796f
The bulk of the commenters’ observations were skeptical of Batteroo and its pending product, and otherwise negative in tone. Some of the comments were from Batteroo itself; unfortunately, in my opinion, the company frequently chose to engage in personal attacks on the detractors themselves (their underlying motives, their backers, their technical competence, etc), versus focusing on addressing the issues raised.
1) Why couldn’t the requisite boost and regulation circuitry alternatively be located within the powered device itself? In fact, as you likely already realize, it frequently is.
Putting boost circuitry inside a device would work. The reality, however, is that there are 5.4 billion devices already made vast majority of which do not have boost circuitry inside—which is what Batteriser was designed for.
Device makers are incredibly cost-conscience, and hesitant to add in additional parts that effect their bottom line. In my own experience dealing with fortune 500 companies, I remember that my colleagues would spend days negotiating a fraction of a penny in cost for expensive devices.
Furthermore, many electronic devices have very limited space and power envelopes. The addition of the boost circuitry adds time to the design cycle, more space, and more power—all of which are opposite of what manufacturers prefer to incur.
there are very few available boost circuitry in the market that work down to low voltage ranges such as Batteriser
2) How does Battteroo come to the conclusion that most devices have a cut off voltage of 1.3V? Dave Jones couldn’t find any.
Based on Dave’s argument, there should only be 10% of energy left in the battery with 1.1V cut off voltage. Additionally he says that since boost circuitry uses energy to boost, the overall gain is even less than 10% and perhaps even a total negative impact on performance. In the same video, he mentions that “most electronic devices have boost circuitry” making Batteriser useless. One cannot have it both ways.
We are shortly releasing a technical video that will explain in detail how a device with a cut off voltage of 1.1V has only used less than 20% of the battery’s energy, which corresponds to the charge left in a battery with around 1.3V steady state current load condition
This study shows that 10% of the batteries thrown away have roughly enough energy left in them to be considered unused, and 20% of the perceived “dead” batteries have, on average, 93% of their energy still left in them. This study further shows that if you take an average of 30% of the “least dead” batteries, 84% of energy is still left inside.
Furthermore, OfficialDuracellUK uploaded a video on YouTube that shows how they were able to light up a Duracell Bunny LED light sculpture using 192 perceived dead batteries. The video states that based on a sample from a UK recycling center, one third of batteries thrown away have up to 67% of “usable” power left inside.
3) How do you explain Batteroo’s cost-savings claims?
We absolutely acknowledge that batteries vary tremendously in price depending on where they are bought
A much more separate debate is whether very inexpensive “generic” batteries are equivalent in performance and superior in value to regular name-brand offerings.
“If I used the cheaper DG, I would just have to replace the batteries more often.”
These were the numbers he calculated for stored energies of the three batteries:
DG (Dollar Store) = 2983 Joules (0.829 Watt*hours)
Energizer = 10,798 Joules (3.00 Watt*hours)
“With this in mind, you may not save much, or any money at all, by buying cheaper batteries vs premium Duracell or Energizer batteries.”
4) Is this product really benefitting the environment in any meaningful way?
Every year, more than 15 billion batteries end up in landfills.
Based on the study done by the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, “Single-Use Alkaline Battery Case Study,” steel, zinc, and manganese are not the only materials found in batteries. Batteries also contain potassium, graphite, copper, nickel, PVC, nylon, and paper. Current recycling processes can only recover steel, zinc, and manganese, with recycling technologies that vary depending on location affecting the percentage of material that is recoverable.
We’re actually big fans of rechargeable batteries
Amazing Duracell Bunny LED Light Sculpture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JglYXZgP740
Tomi Engdahl says:
Skarp Laser Razor Kickstarter Suspended, Jumps To Indiegogo
http://hackaday.com/2015/10/13/skarp-laser-razor-kickstarter-suspended-jumps-to-indiegogo/
An irritation-free razor that gives a close shave has been a dream for thousands of years. [Gillette] came close, and with multiple blades came even closer, but all razors today are still just sharpened steel dragged across the skin. This is the 21st century, and of course there’s a concept for a laser razor pandering for your moola. We recently covered the Skarp laser razor and its Kickstarter campaign, and today the campaign has been shut down.
It only took eight hours for the Skarp team to relaunch their crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. As of this writing, over 900 people (ostensibly from the 20,000 backers of the original Kickstarter campaign) have pledged to the new campaign.
Although we will never know exactly why Kickstarter suspended the original Skarp campaign, the reason given by the Kickstarter Integrity Team points to the lack of a working prototype, one of the requirements for technology campaigns on Kickstarter. Interestingly, Skarp did post a few videos of their razor working. These videos were white balanced poorly enough to look like they were filmed through green cellophane, a technique some have claimed was used to hide the actual mechanism behind the prototype’s method of cutting hair.
But for a crowdfunding campaign to be suspended on Kickstarter and immediately move to Indiegogo? This almost never ends well. One of the most famous examples, the Anonabox, had its Kickstarter campaign suspended after it was found the creator was simply rebadging an off-the-shelf router.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Power Saver review biggest Scam 2011 “Save 25% on Your Electric Bill!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H1PCYm4bEk
Tomi Engdahl says:
Exposed ? Free Energy Magnet Motor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I3Ly5mBhT4
How a computer fan spins using magnets
If you see these on the net, they are fake, this video shows how the fan spins using 2 hidden batteries and a reed switch. The lamp being illuminated is also a trick
Tomi Engdahl says:
Power Jack 5000W Pure Sine Inverter Review – part1/3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI9kAWQ_s4w
In this series I take a look at a PowerJack Inverter that I recently acquired and see if it is really as bad as I’ve heard. They are inexpensive to purchase, but are they worth what they cost?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Inside a whole-house energy saver.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKasA4HxaGY
This is a perplexingly complicated device that was/is heavily marketed by salesmen as an energy saving unit that will lower your electricity bill.
The design starts out in a very traditional manner by using a device called a buck transformer.
The unit is actually only rated for 8A with a peak of 20A and will bypass the transformer if the load gets too high or if the transformer gets hot.
I’m a firm proponent of keeping domestic (home) installs as simple as possible to make things reliable and safe. This beast does not fit in that category.
At the end of the video I redesign the unit for ease of fitting and reliability and there’s also a fake customer testimonial for authenticity.
Tomi Engdahl says:
This products looks like to me like a snake oil – a product that does not work as promised.
They claim that just wiping your electrical panel with their wipes would save electricity.
It does not work that way – and their “scientific explanation” sounds like total bullshit
Z-Energeia Energy Optimizer 2.0
http://www.zenergeia.sg/official/the-product/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Inside a whole-house energy saver.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKasA4HxaGY
This is a perplexingly complicated device that was/is heavily marketed by salesmen as an energy saving unit that will lower your electricity bill.
The design starts out in a very traditional manner by using a device called a buck transformer. This is a transformer with a mains voltage primary and a low voltage secondary that then gets put in series with the load and drops the voltage to it (or boosts it up if wired in reverse). Then it gets quite complicated with a bank of IGBTs (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors)
I’m not sure if the design actually controlled the output voltage accurately or if it was just a soft cut-in and out to avoid sudden intensity changes of lighting. The unit is actually only rated for 8A with a peak of 20A and will bypass the transformer if the load gets too high or if the transformer gets hot.
I’m a firm proponent of keeping domestic (home) installs as simple as possible to make things reliable and safe. This beast does not fit in that category.
Tomi Engdahl says:
200kW miracle power saving device.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHanyzP3C6o
Just in case you didn’t notice,I really love quack products. I’ve taken apart similar units to this in a plug-in version, but this is a stand-alone aluminium case version.
OK, it’s smaller than I was expecting, but that’s just one of those things. It uses pretty much the same circuitry, basically a capacitor in parallel with the mains, but has a more sensible LED drive circuit and a fuse too.
These things claim to lower your electricity bill by filtering/improving the mains sinewave. They’re loosely based on power factor correction, but as that has no effect on a home electricity meter they won’t show an effect.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mystery 240V electrical deathtrap.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUn17ccR2a4
Inside a heated shower head. (suicide shower)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNjA0aee07k
This device is apparently quite common in countries where electrical standards are more relaxed and the climate is a bit milder. It’s basically a chunky shower head that has a heater built into it.
2.5kW electro baby-cutor. (And dodgy bucket warmer.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIUJWIT9GrU
The latest addition to my growing collection of delightfully dangerous Chinese electrode water boilers. This one is supposedly rated 2.5kW and is rather amusingly sold for heating the water for babies baths.
To be fair, it does suggest unplugging it before putting the baby in, as otherwise you and the baby would have a very loud and violent 50/60Hz family moment.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Inside an ECO OBD2 “chip tuner” fuel saver.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8vjWXXIJas
I’m not sure about this thing at all. The idea is that you plug it into your cars OBD2 diagnostics connector and it analyses your driving and engine performance, and then remaps your engines control parameters to make it more efficient.
However, from what I’ve found online, the OBD port is not really suited to re-mapping engine characteristics.
Then comes the awkward situation of whether you should plug ANY device that claims to alter engine settings into your car. There are so many different makes and models of car that the software would have to identify the make and model, type of engine and the parameters it could safely change. You would then be relying on a bit of software of unknown origin that was basically messing around with settings in a vehicle that could damage it, cause it to malfunction suddenly while being driven, or even just brick the cars control computer completely. All these scenarios could result in thousands of pounds worth of damage.
So it’s a surprise that the unit does have more than just some blinking LED
Tomi Engdahl says:
Teardown and test of a home power saving plug
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o3mADtThUs
These “power saving” plugs are widely available on the Internet. The premise is that you plug them into ANY socket in your home and suddenly your electricity bill gets lower. These claims are usually backed up by testimonials from satisfied users who quote staggering savings on their electricity bills.
In reality the plugs have no significant effect on a home power bill, since the only effect they have is random compensation for any continuous inductive loads in the home like transformers in power supplies. But even then, it’s just a random correction of power factor (relationship of the voltage waveform to the current waveform) and as this is not even monitored by most household meters it won’t have any effect on your bills at all.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fake solar LED keyring from ebay seller heavends.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=546bIjc4pes
It’s basically a keyring with LEDs and a button for use as a flashlight, but also with a solar panel to recharge the internal cell. However, in this case it’s a fake. It’s got a real solar panel, but it’s not charging the two internal CR2016 lithium cells, which is probably a good thing really, since they are not rechargeable.
Tomi Engdahl says:
But Penton and Mr Davis seem unconcerned and perhaps somewhat defensive over this bit of pseudoscience.
As for Kedron Energy, they’re following the usual script:
1) Can’t let you see or test the motor until the patent is complete
2) Financial partners would be appreciated
My father was a Penton/IPC editor for some twenty years, and no firm had a better reputation. It’s truly a shame.
It is quite disappointing, even disturbing to read something like this from website that is supposedly professional. I see that I was mistaken.
I am sorry to say, that the author of this article is badly mislead. Very, very badly.
The clue is in the strapline to the previous article: “producing continued motion … without … using an external power source”. That is the definition of a perpetual-motion machine! It is well-established that such a thing is not physically possible. So now we have a follow up article with bamboozling talk of “perpetual spin” of electrons and how that (obviously!) must mean that this guy’s proposed (but non-existant) motor must work.
Yes, Kenneth Kozeka has constructed some fun and expensive-looking apparatus to show-off magnets doing their amazing things. What he hasn’t shown is this “simultaneous attract and repel” doing anything useful, like producing perpetual motion, because that’s impossible. He won’t be able to get a US or UK patent, because the US requires a working model to grant patents for perpetual-motion machines, and the UK just doesn’t allow patents on perpetual motion machines.
New Discovery Could Lead to Commercial Production of Permanent Magnet Motors
http://www.powerelectronics.com/alternative-energy/new-discovery-could-lead-commercial-production-permanent-magnet-motors
Is a Permanent Magnet Motor Feasible?
http://www.powerelectronics.com/alternative-energy/permanent-magnet-motor-feasible?code=UM_TopArticles_11217&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=14205&utm_medium=email&elq2=977f3403800940dfb5639a1b01a8f069
Robb says:
Check out ie.energy. Inductance Energy Corporation has a magnetic propulsion machine they call the Earth Engine. Unlike creators of magnetic “mystery machines” of the past, IEC must be on to something as they are demoing the engine at energy summits and allowing serious investors to check it out in Scottsdale, AZ
Tomi Engdahl says:
A look at three different energy saver plugs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD7M_tJ-SwM
I’ve looked at these quack products before (they don’t reduce your power bill). This time I thought I’d buy some from different sources including two with different ratings and prices from one listing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Autopsy of the Mysterious Black Box from the Chinese Power Savers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JkxiODLboQ
Two thin metal foils seperated by a thin dielectric film. Yes. We all know what that is.
Mud material = explosion proof
It is just a big capacitor witch should reduce the shift of current and voltage and so increase the efficiency with some devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
FuelShark SCAM – Car Fuel Saver / Economizer – Teardown & Schematic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLRfOvYEGiI
FuelShark, also called car fuel saver or economizer, is a miraculous device that claims to save 20% or more of fuel. Just plug it into the cigarette lighter socket of your car and you magically save 20% of gas. It also saves oil, battery life and environment and even increases the power of your engine! This is what the sellers claim. In reality, this is just a tiny 1000uF capacitor (rated 25V) connected in parallel with car mains. Fortunately there’s also a 2A fuse. There’s also an indicator LED with two 1k resistors in series (they could have used one) and a 1.5M discharging resistor. I have no idea how this is supposed to save 20% of your fuel
Tomi Engdahl says:
Free Energy? Chinese Energy Saver (Metal Box Version) Tested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFKdV4v_Wlk
It says “Load: 300 000 W. Saves 40% Power”. Really? I decided to test another version of the popular Chinese Power Savers / Electricity saving boxes. This time it is the metal box version. Having no grounding, this means a risk of electric shock.
There is only capacitor inside!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Inside a digital 80kW power saver unit. (with schematic)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69P70Z1GCfs
These units are sold as devices that can save you electricity costs by making your meter run slower.
Comment:
I ordered a super cheap one of these things a while ago just because I wanted the plugpack enclosure for something else and I thought hey I can take the juicy cap out and maybe use it for something but when I opened the case all I got inside was an LED and 4 resistors and even thought the enclosure was the only thing I actually needed I felt so cheated
Do you think that metal case with no ground is a good idea???
Yes! With hand soldered wires inside.
No it’s a terrible idea.
I probably should have written “Did they really think it was a good idea to have a metal case with no ground.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Power Saver Scam EXPOSED!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J86QK0Njfv4
Power Saver devices are sold everywhere. But do they actually save power?! DON’T BE SHEEP!
Comment:
bigclivedotcom
2 päivää sitten
With the new “smart” meters they can unfortunately start charging for apparent power instead of real power. And that can be done remotely. If they do that then suddenly things with capacitive droppers like time switches and will cost about 10 times as much to run and most LED lamps will cost between twice and ten times as much to run depending on their circuitry.
Sadly, a simple capacitor won’t fix most electronic power factor issues. But it’s a nice case and can be used as a shocker. (but with a much bigger capacitor)
Tomi Engdahl says:
Faker-shaker. Fake “eco” flashlight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ujio2shR7Lg
I remember when these things first appeared. They were so hyped up it was ridiculous.
The implication was that with a brief spell of shaking the flashlight would provide hours of light. And to be fair, you did kinda get hours of light if you regard a faint glow when you look directly into the end of it as “light”.
many fakes that appeared when the Chinese manufacturers realised that the concept was so flawed that they might as well just fake it from the start.
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEVblog #1181 – Car ECO OBD2 Fuel Saver SCAM!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgXwfBTKLGU
Dave exposes the ECO (Nitro) OBD2 Fuel Saver as a complete SCAM!
They are supposed to talk to the car’s ECU via the CAN bus on the OBD2 connector, but does it even do that?
Or is this Homeopathy for cars?
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEVblog #1186 – Solus Graphene Heater Kickstarter BUSTED!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnM4UcSDDpk
Busting the SOLUS Kickstarter – “The Most Efficient Radiator In The World” based on “completely new, eco-friendly and graphene-based technology”
“Save over 80% on your next heating utility bill”!
TLDR; It’s a crazy expensive 200W – 300W glass panel heater with magic woo-woo graphene paste that does not produce any more heat than any other equivalent wattage panel radiator heater.
Tomi Engdahl says:
eevBLAB #60 – Kickstarter Free Energy SCAMS!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfqpuhYiR3o
Dave looks at three current free energy / over unity / perpetual motion scams on Kickstarter.
This crap got APPROVED by Kickstarter!
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEVblog #1191 – Digital Energy Savers BUSTED!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw6mf2sWk2k
Digital energy saver boxes that claim to reduce your power bill by up to 50%, are…
SPOILER ALERT:
Complete bullshit.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Space Heater Nonsense
https://www.reddit.com/r/technologyconnections/comments/aq67gv/space_heater_nonsense/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bob Villa EdenPURE Heater Scam Revealed
https://dengarden.com/appliances/EdenPURE-Scam-Revealed
Ads for EdenPURE portable infrared heaters promise energy savings of up to 50 percent. This article will examine the claims made by EdenPURE’s manufacturer and expose what many claim is a scam.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. If a simple electric space heater can cut energy consumption by 50 percen
The EdenPURE heater is several times as expensive as other infrared electric heaters. Issues of safety, durability, and return on investment must be considered before purchasing one of the most expensive portable infrared heaters on the market.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Topic: 80% off your next heating bill …
http://www.eevblog.com/forum/dodgy-technology/80-off-your-next-heating-bill/
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/koleda/solus-the-most-efficient-radiator-in-the-world
Looks like another industrial design project with outrageous claims again.
SOLUS will save you approximately 80% off the cost of your heating (compared with conventional water based radiators) and over 95% off the cost of your heating (if you heat your home with other electric radiators).
100% scam.
So he is trying to say that the efficiency of normal electric heaters decreases by 80% over a long lifetime (shall we say 20 years) due to oxidisation. He admits in a recent update that new radiators are about 100% efficient as their radiator is. Total scam, complete rubbish. If you want an electric radiator that wont suffer from oxidisation just buy a oil filled radiator…. Does not need graphene or any other millennial super hero material to give the same benefit.
Ah, right. As electrical heaters degrade, the lose efficency. And hence they convert part of the incoming electrical energy into unwanted… umm.. heat?!
Well, honestly, you need less heating when you use an IR heater. It provides comfortable feeling at lower temperature. You know, when you are outside, and its 15 degrees, while the sun is shining it’s still comfy.
But that is no excuse for the buzzwords, and bullshit.
How much less, surely you don’t believe their 95% electricity saving.
It’s the equivalent of replacing a 1kW radiator with a 50 Watt light bulb, in practice a room already has various things radiating/convecting about 50W or more of heat.
Tomi Engdahl says:
This EMF filter claims to filter noise from electrical power and claims to save electricity + reduce heating of devices. My views that those energy saving + reduced heating claims are not believable. The potential of saving on those with a filter is such small that they would be too small to noticeable and may be even hard to measure. So I would call that those saved electricity and less heating clams to be be complete bullshit or pretty close to it.
Power Perfect Box – Whole Home Filter – EMF / Dirty Electricity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNX2yHrcVYc
Tomi Engdahl says:
The real truth behind household power savers
https://electrical-engineering-portal.com/the-real-truth-behind-household-power-savers
Conclusion
Power factor correction devices improve power quality but do not generally improve energy efficiency (meaning they would not reduce your energy bill). There are several reasons why their energy efficiency claims could be exaggerated.
First, residential customers are not charged for KVA – hour usage, but by kilowatt-hour usage. This means that any savings in energy demand will not directly result in lowering a residential user’s utility bill.
Second, the only potential for real power savings would occur if the product were only put near in the circuit while a reactive load (such as a motor) were running, and taken out of the circuit when the motor is not running. This is impractical, given that there are several motors in a typical home that can come on at any time (refrigerator, air conditioner, HVAC blower, vacuum cleaner, etc.), but the Power Saver itself is intended for permanent, unattended connection near the house breaker panel.
And certainly not in the way the manufacturers recommend that they be installed, that is, permanently connecting them at the main panel. Doing that drags the power factor capacitive when the inductive motors are off and could create some real problems with ringing voltages.
The KVAR needs to be sized perfectly to balance the inductive loads. Since our motors cycle on and off and we don’t use the air conditioner in the winter, there is no way to get it sized properly unless we have something to monitor the line and switch it on and off capacity (capacitors) as necessary.
Adding a capacitor to a line that has harmonic frequencies (created by some electronic equipment) on it can result in unwanted resonance and high currents.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fake DIY Projects Exposed, and How a Real Generator Works
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6hQcdjcI9Y
Internet was supposed to bring knowledge to masses, not a deception stage to @$$e$!
At least let’s take the opportunity to understand how a real electronic generator should work.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Boy Who Cried “FREE ENERGY”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otjvUz7qKXc
I really hoped the boy would not continue on his shenanigans. But I guess not.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Charging from the power lines.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyfXvFicp8M
You can capture the current with any grounded object: a bicycle, a human, a TV antenna, etc.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Reverse osmosis water purification scam: Hidden camera investigation (CBC Marketplace)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcjhRBflVGQ
Clean Water, Dirty Tricks: Marketplace goes undercover to expose the techniques used in door-to-door sales of water purification systems — devices that can cost thousands of dollars, but which most people simply may not need.
Comments:
So the scam is not in the Reverse Osmosis device but in the selling of it.
Yep, fraud and scamming. It a $200 product that they are selling to you for $3500. They are playing simple chemistry tricks and then lying about the real water quality. If you don’t add chlorine to your water, depending on it’s source, you can catch nasty diseases. That’s why developed countries have higher life expectancies.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ultra-Fast Dryer -BUSTED!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfkphhQtEys
Comments:
I await the inevitable Morus official response, then the backer backlash at this vid, then the production delays, the excuses, then the calls from backers for refunds, then…well you get the point
“My name is Bond, Hydrogen Bond and I will thwart your evil plans of vacuum drying!”
Red Dot – The participation trophy of design awards?
“At least you tried”
What’s funnier is that they didn’t even win the reward, they got mentioned.
just checked on the Kickstarter page, they replied to a comment that mentioned your video
Tomi Engdahl says:
Busted ‘Super-Dryer’ responds!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXR6y2ST77s
Comments:
These dodgy crowd funder defense responses are always the same. “It’s not a scam because doofawinkle technology is real and is used in industry”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Power Saver Scam EXPOSED!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J86QK0Njfv4
Power Saver devices are sold everywhere. But do they actually save power?! DON’T BE SHEEP!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Despite big promises, Bloom Energy’s boxes are highly unlikely to transform the grid in California, or anywhere else.
The Forbes Investigation: How Bloom Energy Blew Through Billions Promising Cheap, Green Tech That Falls Short
https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2020/02/13/the-forbes-investigation-how-bloom-energy-blew-through-billions-promising-cheap-green-tech-that-falls-short/?utm_source=FBPAGE&utm_medium=social&utm_content=3119213361&utm_campaign=sprinklrForbesMainFB#4fc9b0093e5f
His company, publicly traded Bloom Energy, sells fuel cells—steel boxes that generate electricity using natural gas. The boxes, which it calls energy servers, emit a nearly pure stream of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, but they are supposed to make much less of it than traditional power plants and do so without generating lots of smog ingredients like nitrogen oxide and sulfur oxides.
Even better, Bloom’s units get their fuel via underground pipelines unaffected by the Diablo winds that threatened California’s high-voltage wires and led to the power outages that Sridhar considers intolerable in any modern society, let alone in Silicon Valley.
“Every time there is a disaster your power price is going to go up, because somebody has to pay for the damage,” Sridhar says. “That is the catalyst fþor change.”
protect against grid failure with Bloom-powered “microgrids,”
Bloom has never generated a profit, despite at least $1.7 billion of invested capital, some of which was raised on the back of false statements.
Over its 19 years in business, Bloom has installed several thousand of its 15-ton boxes worldwide for big tech companies including Apple, AT&T and Paypal, which are willing to pay up to guarantee 24/7 power for data centers where the cost of downtime is nearly $9,000 per minute. A lot of its customers are in states with the highest power prices and big clean-energy subsidies
This should be Bloom’s time to shine. “The natural gas, thanks to fracking, is already there,” Sridhar says. And yet, despite big promises, Sridhar’s boxes are highly unlikely to transform the grid in California, or anywhere else. The reasons are manifold, but boil down to this: Bloom’s technology is too dirty and too costly.
Truly renewable power is now much cheaper than Bloom’s. Without subsidies, solar and onshore wind both cost 4 cents per kwh, according to asset management firm Lazard.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to Spot & Avoid Power Saving Scams
https://reductionrevolution.com.au/blogs/news-reviews/power-saving-scams
Over the years, I’ve seen plenty of power-saving scams. They often claim to save vast amounts off your electricity bills.
The problem is, they all rely on a grain of truth in their marketing spiel. So these devices often sound technically plausible.
They can seem legitimate on the surface, even though they are not.
On the plus side, scammers are generally quite lazy. So the vast majority of energy-saving scams currently on the market look much the same as they did ten years ago.
Some are little devices that plug-in to a power socket and magically reduce your electricity bill. These devices use bogus techno-jargon like ‘dirty power’ to sound smart and get your money. If you buy one, you’ll get a cheap plastic box with a plug on it that won’t reduce your electricity usage. They include devices like the Eco-Watt, EcoPlug, MiracleWatt, Voltex, Voltbox and others. There will always be a new name: Voltex (getvoltex.com) was uncovered so fast they just made a new website for the similarly named Volt Box (getvoltbox.com). By the time you read this, they’ll probably have another new name.
Others get wired or plugged in at your meter board to supposedly perform power factor correction on your electricity usage. Examples include the Earthwise Power Saver, the Power Saver Pioneer, Energy Saver 1200, and others. These devices often say that they ‘reduce amps’ or ‘correct power factor’. As I’ll explain below, power factor correction is a real thing, but it won’t help residential electricity users.
Yet others are junk concepts conveyed via an over-priced e-book. Recent examples include the Easy Power Plan or Power Efficiency Guide eBooks. The fun thing about these two is that they’re both written by a “geography teacher from Memphis, Tennessee” with two different names and ages, who would have thought!
You can buy these fake gadgets on Wish, AliExpress, and Alibaba direct from China – no real surprises there. Somewhat more disappointingly they turn up frequently on Google Shopping, Amazon and eBay as well.
Scams of the free energy variety are somewhat common on start-up sites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter.
In summary, most organisations cannot be trusted to shield you from these scams. They’ve tricked a lot of people. But some quick research reveals the dubious nature of the claims made.
Reality: Power Factor Correction Is Real, BUT…
Residential electricity customers, and most small businesses, do not pay for poor power factor. So, even IF these devices correct power factor, they will not change your electricity bill.
Power factor correction will reduce your apparent power consumption. It does not affect real power (what you are billed for).
Power Scam Type 2: Secret Info / Free Energy Machine
The second type of scam I have seen are informational. Such the sale of an eBook which will show you how to build a free energy machine. Or the funding of a new business venture to build such a device.
Of course, they’re always from some novice. If this garbage was real, they would not be selling you an ebook about it for $27. They’d be manufacturing the thing and selling it to you for a lot more.
Enersonic Power Saver.
They had all the usual claims:
“by using the Power Saver, domestic consumers could save up to 24% on their electrical power consumption… [they] would thereby save money.”
But, the reality was more like this:
“the Power Saver was not capable of reducing the amount of electrical power consumed by domestic consumers as measured by retail electricity suppliers, and therefore domestic consumers could not save up to 24% on their electrical power consumption by using the Power Saver… [they] could not save money by using the Power Saver.”
Summary: How to Avoid Being Scammed & Start Saving Energy
First of all, if the device looks or sounds like one of the products mentioned above, it could be a scam.
A healthy dose of scepticism, plus some online research, should set you straight.
Now, this does not mean that anything that plugs-in and claims to save energy is some kind of trick. For example, standby power eliminators and power meters are plug-in devices that actually do help you save power!
Next, you should re-double your efforts on proven strategies to save energy. They’re easier, cheaper, and obviously far more rewarding.
You know, all those ‘boring’ things like:
Checking your power usage with a power meter or energy monitor.
Changing all your lights to LED.
Switching to low-power heating & cooling systems.
Tomi Engdahl says:
No way a capacitor made with paper as a dielectric can be 2000F, unless it has the size of a nuclear power plant evaporation tower.
Also, you labeled it with + and – poles even if this is a non polarized capacitor.
Please don’t let people waste their time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUYfoeGroeY
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEVblog 1466 – Stanford Solar Power at Nightime! BUSTED
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdge8vEODeY
Stanford University researchers have made a solar panel that works at nighttime!
It will reduce or eliminate the need for battery storage! TAKE THAT Big Oil!
You can probably guess how it works… Let’s BUST this impractical boondoggle wide open.
The research paper: https://aip.scitation.org/doi/pdf/10….
Forum: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/ee…
00:00 – Pulitzer prize winning twitter Blue Checkmark time
00:35 – If Stanford University did the research, it has to be true!
02:35 – Take that Big Oil!
03:35 – The Thermoelectric Generator AGAIN…
04:10 – It generates HOW MUCH power at night time?
06:02 – Let’s run the numbers on Dave’s LG panel system
08:04 – It’s not much better than ONE 18650 cell. LOL
09:37 – Tech journalists should be able to multiply and divide.
10:09 – Reading the paper
11:50 – Photos of the prototype
Tomi Engdahl says:
Electricity Saving Box Scam (The WORST I’ve Seen) – Krazy Ken’s Tech Talk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLj4Dl_7c4E
This is one of the most B.S. product I’ve ever dug into. From the marketing to the science to the real-world testing, the “Electricity Saving Box” is totally a scam. Here’s why…
Tomi Engdahl says:
There’s a pretty long history of bogus gadgets promising ludicrously unrealistic increases in efficiency. From magnets that wrap around your fuel line to a “voltage stabilizer” you plug into a 12 V socket, none have ever actually worked because they invariably defy the laws of physics. Unfortunately, relying on the naïvety of your customers has always been a good way to get paid.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/07/dc-fits-fleet-of-evs-with-bogus-gadget-promising-60-range-boost/?utm_medium=social&utm_social-type=owned&utm_brand=ars&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR2WJN86r64ULSy1U-kF3iFkWZKeSSBz0uNvRitnKQkJ87jKq0OBtzrZuAY