You can shower this channel with free energy at https://www.patreon.com/bigclive
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) which combine the ease of driving of a MOSFET with the ruggedness of a traditional bipolar transistor. Not rugged enough though apparently as they had all failed as a dead short between their emitters and collectors with leakage to the gate too.
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.
This unit may require significant rewiring of a consumer unit to separate the heaviest loads like showers, cookers and water heaters from the controlled loads like lighting and general power. It requires its own 50A breaker and the power loops out the consumer unit and then back in to a bank of breakers for the controlled loads.
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. Ladies and gentlemen... I give you the Energy Saver 3000 plus.

17 thoughts on “Inside a whole-house energy saver.”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars RiceCakeMochi says:

    A modern update to Clive's circuit would be to use a microcontroller to run the LED's because that's programmed with AI machine learning, clearly, advanced power saving.

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars James Halfhorse says:

    I see these for sensitive electronics that require a specific voltage. I am wondering if this is also a line conditioner as well as buck. They kind of make sure if you want 100 volts you get 100 volts no matter what the grid is doing. I used to see them all the time but replaced with always on sinewave upses now that they are cheap. It might bypass all or part of itself if the line volt was around 100 volts would be a guess. I have not taken a lot of them apart. As for how things run I have been discussing with people smarter than me about what will happen here when I go from standard US grid of split phase 120/240 to the 3phase 208 of my generator grabbing 2 120 phases to give me 208 instead of 240 and the (for some reason only) large appliances that are specifically 240 and not 240/208 will just run less efficiently or draw more. Why I asked the 3 phase question.

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Topi Linkala says:

    I had 10A fuse on combined kitchen outlets & bathroom. I blew it once when my waching machine started to heat water and I put my electric kettle on.

    Btw. When Finland changed from 220 VAC to 230VAC it was not a big deal. The standard was actually 220 VAC +-10%, so all appliances were rated to withstand 242 VAC and still operate on 198 VAC. Because the actual fluctuation was only about 1% the change meant nothing as 230 VAC +1% is 232,3 VAC.

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars All Things M3 says:

    I have seen certain things damaged by running a low voltage. Like with old stuff you can put it on a variac and slowly bring the voltage up to make sure you don’t release the magic smoke. I use a light bulb in line as a load so if there’s a short the light glows bright and you know you have a short but newer stuff with micro controllers I have killed a couple of things and read an article about that issue.

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Tony Durmon says:

    Oldie but a goodie! 😂

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Darren Glynn says:

    Plastic / ABS fuseboxes are outlawed since 2015 as they have to be all (Metal) reason why Plastic / ABS fuseboxes have a tendency of melting if a (Mini circuit breaker) fails to trip.

    Very nice unti. Though.

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Airborne Misfit says:

    Max combustible Unit. Made my day.

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Alan Alda says:

    Ahahaha Ending of this awesome piece of technology review working and shining made my day mate ! Ahahaha

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Rocky Robinson says:

    in this type of mains voltage stabilizer does the transformer act like a inductor and improve the power factor of the switch mode PSU and reduce noise from entering the mains?

    most cheap UPS have this type of stabilization built in.

    thank you.

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars GetCarterCarPark says:

    Can I join you in pointing fingers at kitchen fitters, in so much as a friend of mine had an electric shower put in by the guy who fitted their kitchen (after all it is "just" plumbing, is it not).
    Last year I was asked to take a look at the shower because it was tripping the circuit breaker after the shower was in use for 5 minutes.
    I found the kitchen fitter had wired the 8 kW shower with 2.5 mm T&E, a run of some 30 feet of 2.5 mm T&E. About halfway along the run of the shower's 2.5 mm mains cable (up in the loft), I found a section of T&E that had melted and the L & N were momentarily touching as the wires warmed up, the insulation liquified/melted, when the shower was in use. The shower had been in use for about 5 years, how on earth my friend survived using that shower that long is pure luck. He wouldn't believe me that the wiring was a problem until I said, just go put the shower on and feel how warm the twin and earth cable coming out of the consumer unit gets after just a couple of minutes. It really was very warm to the touch.

    I've been retired for some 30 years now, from the trade and I find it shocking you can have a "qualified" electrician after a weekend course, literally shocking in more than one way!

    Regards,
    K Watt. And YES that is my name and YES I was a real 5 year time served Electrician.

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Albin says:

    who the fuck installs that thing??

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Brian de Jong says:

    Such an impressive box, reminds me of Rick and Morty. "What is my purpose?" scene. But instead of passing butter, it wastes energy.

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Gustaw says:

    So if the polarity of secondary would be switched, and it would boost the voltage instead of lowering it THEN one would actually save money for electronic loads? (Cheating the meter)😂

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Pierre-Rose says:

    Want to save power, turn it off !

  15. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Graham Serle says:

    I'd call it the BS3000+ Money Maker.

  16. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars ipr says:

    @bigclivedotcom What is the difference between that transformer and an autotransformer? It looks identical to an autotransformer.

  17. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Jonathan Scott says:

    It is not often you make a mistake, Clive! Nevertheless, your logic is wrong. 
    You say the meter will incorrectly read power consumed because it measures incoming voltage and current while the load sees lower voltage but the same current; in fact the bucking transformer pushes power from secondary to primary so the meter sees less current than the load draws 🙂

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