I reckon if you plugged 100 of them in, your meter would go backwards & your electricity supplier would end up owing you money. kerchiiing.

Really good assessment.It would be extremely helpful if you added a section at the very start advising in explicit terms that these will not reduce household bills in any way.I'm sure many desperate people who are struggling to pay their energy bills are buying these without realising they offer zero benefit and that they are getting conned.

One comment that deserves mentioning is that often large switch mode power supplies provide a capacitor across the phases of the incoming AC to shunt electrical noise and prevent it getting back onto the line. This is referred to as "X-Y" capacitor filtering, and there is also an "X-Y-Z" arrangement that provides a capacitor from the hot leg to the ground pin. Normally the filtering cap in these arrangements is only about 0.1 microfarad, so 3 microfarad is quite large and is probably passing a lot more of the AC wave to the transformer neutral. The capacitor acts as a high pass filter, hopefully creating a low impedance path for electrical noise local to the connected device. A similar device is sold by a company called Shunyata Research (an outfit of questionable legitimacy) to Audiophiles, and claims to lower the noise on the AC line by shunting it through. I once built a power strip that had X-Y-Z capacitive filtering, and it works fine, but it causes GFCIs to emit a strange sound; I suspect the noise current heading back through the ground lead isn't making them happy.

Hey there Clive. I completely adore your videos. I am currently binging them while repairing a big Marshall tube amp. It help against the monotony. Thanks al lot. :D

It amazes me that these things haven't been reduced down to a plug and a bag of sand by now.

The best energy saver is to not plug them in. Or just put in some led lights and watch half your bill vanish

Only one thing left to do and thats short out the capacitor and plug them in to test that fuse theory...

Your videos are awesome. Have me laughing often. Plus the educational aspect is cool... and thats coming from a chemical engineer..

Hi Clive. I've just made up a PCB to make a square wave for driving two-wire AC LED Christmas lights, after being disappointed with the timer and obligatory seizure-strobe modes built into some new lights that I've just bought. The PCBs should be arriving at some point after Christmas, and I was wondering if you'd be up for taking a look at one after they arrive and I've put them up together. There's nothing particularly special about them, in fact I've built them to use parts that I already have lying around and hence aren't exactly space-optimised. I just thought they may be of interest since you made a short video about that style of lights last year. Thanks.

just as brilliant as the vehicle fuel saver -wow !

I think the 30,000 Watts refers to the amount of energy your soft furnishings will give off in the fire if you plug it in behind your settee or curtains etc

I think there was a time back in the late 1970's or early 1980's when they made units that had active electronics in them that could make things like motors run smoother and cooler, so they sold them as a way to prolong the life of the motor and reduce your power bill. I could be wrong.

How expensive were these? Looks like they might be useful just as cases for hobby projects if they are cheap enough

my bill was so high from using led lights, solar panels with small battery setup using it at high peek times and helping to fully charge em at low peek times. in canada. cost me $4.00 last month. I cant believe how much you really can save by changing things around. costly to begin but well worth it in the longrun.

I bought one of these just to get the plugpack enclosure for a project, so ofc I got the cheapest one I could find because I was going to gut it anyway. all it had inside was the board with 5:12 that same weird resistor and LED arrangement, they didnt even bother with the big filter cap. but then it was only like £1.60 or something.

Cute cases for rehousing small switchmode supplys. Have you gently applied a hammer to those caps to see if its hiding a tiny capacitor?

Could you pls make video about ethernet-over-powerlines plugs? I would like to see what are those usually made of.

Even though i don't understand most of this i still like to tune in and see how clive's thumbnail is getting on

If I had video editing skills, I'd make a super-cut of Clive saying "so you don't get a zap when you touch the plug" and "so you don't get a tingle when you touch the plug"

Hi Clive, any idea what sort of impact these devices would have on ‘powerline’ adaptors?

I did want to see them go BANG! Disappointment is becoming the default position for my turgid existence when I can't even get a bang off Big Clive..... I wonder if I should rephrase that?

Snake oil.

So glad in the states thing's come with plugs on the cords. 😊

I love useless circuits. Used to look forward to Elektors Summer 100 circuits mag. One year there were two great ones - a fuse destroyer (which to be fair did work) and wait for it - a car lock defroster that plugged into the ciggy socket - oh and a solar torch!

When you think it's dead, quackery finds a way.

At least you got 3 neat housings for projects out of this

Okay so the resistor mess has a reason. There are multiple models with the same pcb. In other types they add another 100k in parallel (iirc where the jumper is) and add another LED on the unpopulated spot. The 1M one is for discharge. The 100R resistor is... something idk. Probably a fuse if the 100k one on top burns and arcs because the cap would dump itself into it

Im quite sure that these energy savers in general make the power factor worse because nowadays in the age of capacitive droppers and switching supplies with power factor correction most inductive loads like inductive droppers are pretty much gone and the only real inductive load you can find would be mains powered motors, which usually arent powered most of the time and even when they are, they usually bring their own capacitor.

Do you have any experience with the Savaplug that Iceland (dodgy pizza retailer) used to flog in the mid-90s? They supposedly reduced power consumption by up to 30% on fridges and freezers.

Could the wattage of one of these "power savers" be the power an inductive load would have to draw such that this would compensate for the offset power factor from the inductive load.

I'd like to see a review of your favorite bandaids. I can't help but look for them in all of your vids. 😎

Hello Clive Have really enjoyed watching your videos and have learnt a lot about electronics from you also when your draw circuit diagrams, they are very easy to understand for a beginner like my self, You have mentioned that you do some shopping for things at banggood have bought some great things from there oh and price is better than ebay... Merry xmas to you

Hi Clive, what do you do with all the things you pull apart? Before anyone asks no I'm not looking for a freebie, I already have enough boxes of bits of crap, that "will come in one day" usually a week after you chuck it out.

Could you review a real UPS, the type with filtering and a largish battery?

I'm surprised you didnt mention they used a metal ground pin and didnt use it. They could have been cheaper!

Could you pick up one of those cheapo sorta kit-based oscilloscopes on eBay? There's hundreds of them listed and they're all almost identical and under 30 or even 20 USD.

Woah neat rather than an ad I got a KZfaq survey that asked which battery manufacturers I know. Of the choices were Duracell, Energizer and Rayovac. Rayovac probably paid for the ad because I've never heard of them before. Rayovac battery test pls?

Would these ever have any use? What about in a county with a dirty mains power supply? Or if you were generating your own power?

but how much current does it draw?

Thank you for a great video. I was going to get one just to see what is inside but now you showed me and I do not need to buy it. What a scam this is! The only thing that works is the little green LED.

You know, I've been thinking. They don't reduce your power bill but if you do have an inductive load like, say, power tools, one of these would help the power factor and may prevent you from tripping the breaker as much. Can't see them being useful for much else though.

Why are some capacitors gigantic like this, when they only have a tiny 3uF rating? The 3uF ceramic caps we use on PCBs are tiny. edit: ah it's to do with voltage. The big sized ones handle hundreds of volts. Still tho, they handle maybe 20x the voltage, but are thousands of times the size?

By opening you destroyed the secret mechanism that saves the energy! 😂😂

I love these, Cheapest way to get large capacitors :) As mentioned they save loads of power......... As long as you leave them in the packaging :)

Well - the "sense" is very easy : Electric engergy is created by inductors in generators and transformes. It has therefore a inductiv part (paseshift). The capacitor compensates the phaseshift a little bit, and so you save a little bit of costs - doubtful with very modern current power-counters ( an old trick... nothing new) - without load : at 50 Hz the 3 uF has 1000 Ohms capacitive resistance - causing capacitve current of about 200 mA.

4:39 FULL BRIDGE RECTIFIER!!!

Man you could make a pretty hefty voltage multiplier with those beefy caps

Hasn't anyone noticed the component designators on the boars with only resistors. The "fuse" appears to be supposed to be either a MOV (VR1) or the dropping capacitor (C1). And three of the resistors are D1, D2, D5 and have the polarity marked on the silkscreen. I've tried reverse engineering what it's supposed to be from the video footage, but I must have gotten something wrong.

I know it wasn't used in this video but I would like to know what bench power supply you have. I am rebuilding my shop and would like to know. I made mistake and ordered a crap 30V 10A model and it couldn't even drive a 12V 2A load. Thanks.

1:21 Obviously an expert in the field of penetration (of warranty/QC stickers)

Clive along these lines, there are some very esoteric smoothing sockets for audiophiles are these just a complete waste of money too? Can you investigate by any chance?

5:52 That cracked me up like a ripe tomato :')

Serious question, do you think putting a few of these around the house might improve a powerline ethernet adapter's performance?

i use them sine i pull 5000w on a old house. helps stop the lights from flickering. is it bad to use these for that?

I like how you draw cats for LEDs =3

1MOhm resistor on the crappy circuit serves as a discharge resistor for the capacitor, bypassing the LED.

the resistor on the output is probably to limit the voltage across the bridge if the led failed. the bridge is probably only a 50V part.

is the capacitor so big in size (the black 'box') because its for mains voltage ?

Thanks for this. I was curious how something so small could reduce your electricity cost by 50%, as quoted by electropro.

See those tiny thin cables? 30kW? Riiiiight. Quality items from China, in line with expectations.

Thanks for sharing 😀👍

I have a question for you... when I touch the backplate of my bluray player with my hdmi cable it sparks! Im scared to get shocked or something :/

Can we have a special Christmas compilation video of things that go bang (or whizz, or boom, or catch fire) in your videos please?

It is impossible to fit something that influences the amount of electricity you consume, in fact the addition of capacitors or inductors (of substantial rating or size) will simply reduce the Watt's or Joules available for your appliances

Looking at THE extra crappy version, seems that the 1M resistor is intended to discharge the capacitor in the reverse voltage part of the sine wave. During that period the led gets also about 300V peak reverse voltage. I am quite sure that exceeds the maximum reverse voltage of the led. They would have done better to replace the 100 ohm series resistor with a proper diode.

I bought one of the airganics ozone generators just after you did the video on them, but now it seems to have stopped sparking and the fan is rather noisy, if there a way to fix it,or has it died a death?

Won't that LED on the cheap version blow immediately with all the reverse voltage across it? Different resistor values could have been used to avoid that!

not sure you remember but you did one of these with the same case a while ago

Any way of reducing the bill if the smart meter is measuring apparent power, with a inductive load?

They actually work! In some old type fluoresent lamps they use capacitors, to repair the choke coil's power factor.

Best random gadget from eBay was Clive's "should I stick this electrode up my butt?". I recall being entered into a voting system to choose the result from KZfaq likes vs. dislikes. It always had 2,000+ thumbs down as sensibly influenced by Clive, but now has over 11,000 thumbs UP! (No excuses by the way, Your follow-up video proved it was safe by Chinese standards)

What could you repurpose those giant capacitors for?

Odd that they waste money on filing (or grinding) down the edges and corners of those capacitors instead of using smaller ones or a slightly different box. Or is that customisation done to ensure that the customer has a house fire?

I might get one of these so I can run my vacuum and washing machine on the same breaker

Hey BC, when you gonna take a good look at free energy (overunity) devices?

I suppose you could repurpose the cases for something useful to at least save some of the material waste in these from landfill?

Hi, I have an LED bike light, and it seems to drain the battery when it's turned off. I only have to use it for ten minutes in a single week and the batteries will already be empty. Other people that have this light have the same problem. Do you think that it would be interesting for a video?

What impact will it have on Impulse chargers and poor flickering led lights?

"noise on the lines" so if you want wind someone up who uses there Ethernet through electric wires plug one of these in an out of the way socket ?

About the only thing that 3mfd capacitor is going to do, is maintain current draw from the mains while powered up.

They should have put in more blinky lights.. would make em work better! ;)

Plug them all into one of those old fashioned mains gang cubes for extra power saving.

Thank you very much very funny and informative .

i'd really like thos fuses to blow up! Or those wires to melt. Do you have a power supply with current regulation?

I can get one of these things for under $5. The 30kW ones, is there any benefit at all to them even if not saving power they also claim smoothing out your power to protect your circuits from surges. If they are that cheap will it be worth it at all? We have a business in our house and do run a lot more motors than the average person. We have a stone grinder that runs 24hrs with a 2hp motor. Would it be beneficial in that situation?

Just look at the stickers. They are all identical. They are all model "OZ-001".

Energy saver, does the led not use power? If you want to save your cost do as i did: buy some solar-panels (5x100watt) buy a 50amps controller, a 200amp truck accu, and lots of led lights and 12volt switches or dimmers, and a converter for 220volts. Install 12 volt system in your hous. Easy as drinking beer 🍺😋

So, these do what exactly??? Oh, I know! It gives a nice glow from the flickery LED... Ridiculous...

Do you know of a quality divice I could buy for my car that would give me dab radio, the ones that transmit the low frequency fm signal, basically transmitting a dab signal to the existing fm radio? Because I drive a Saab 93 2005 and the existing stereo is part of the brain for the car meaning the car won't start if that's removed so I need to find a alternative way of getting dab in my saab

Putting a capacitor on the line will alter the power factor. This could alter your bill, but only if your supplier applies a correction for power factor outside of specified limits. Most utilities don't do that for residential services, as the metering to do that is substantially more expensive.

30KW, thats ermmm 125A, I'd like to see a standard 13A plug handle that :-)

I wonder what'd happen if you blew up one of those resin-encased caps...

Have you done any videos about "voltage optimiser"?

LOOOOL 3:05 _Resift_ , the new electronic component which does stuff and things with electricity! So funny, I laugh so hard! ^_^

Thank you!!

I actually got a couple of the 80kw metal housed box ones for the house because we use our washer and dryer every day, not to mention ceiling fans in the summer and electric convection heaters in the winter. it's a 3 story house so I have one in the basement by the main fuse box and one in the attic. I'm sure it must be helping a bit. I used to install car audio equipment and it seems to be the same principal as adding a 1.5 Farad capacitor to a vehicles electrical system when large loads are applied so as to draw less from the battery and alternator. I would be interested in your opinion mr Clive !!!

I've saw you review similar products and then read all the comments, there's often someone saying you're talking rubbish and these things are brilliant and save people lots of money, undoubtedly from people that sell them. Here's my question... How do you resist answering these types of comments? I'd find it difficult not to point out these products are mince and usually bordering on outright dangerous (as you always do in the videos).

Dave Clive you have said many times that power companies don't charge you for having a low power factor. With many people switching to cheap capacitive dropper LED lights is there any other advantage in correcting for a poor overall power factor? Almost all other appliances would have motors and also put a poor power factor I guess.

I have an idea for a "power saver" which has consumables, which last a few months and has to be connected to the internett. That whould be a "real" inovation of these things instead of haveing always the boring capacitor things.

"Just filling up all the holes." Sound like a scene from a porn film. 😁