Interior Design & Decor

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Solar Station Inc., a Palo Alto based renewable energy products company, has recently released a novel product called Micro Plug.  Invented by an American entrepreneur, this device promises significant reduction in residential electricity usage throught the world.

What makes this device useful is the simplicity of its installation.  In appearance, Micro PLug ressembles common AC to DC adapters and just like them it is plugged between the appliance and the wall socket.  The device is automatically turned on once it is connected to the line and appliance.  From that point on, depending on the case, the device saves 5 – 15% of energy.  The impact on the owner’s utility bill, however, is more than that because Micro PLug also improves the power factor, which is a parameter that is taken into account in the utility bill.  The Micro Plug is indeed a compact version of the industrial power factor correctors, innovatively scaled down. 

Modern industrial power factor correctors use sophisticated electronics and state-of-the-art semiconductor switches.  Micro Plug has succeeded in containing all these elements in a 5″ x 3″ x 2″ box.  Thus, the benefits of power factor correction and harmonic filtering can be applied to any appliance having an AC motor.  This includes refrigrators, washing machines, air conditioners, dish washers, driers, and incinerators. 

The working principal of the Micro Plug is the elimination of reactive currents running through the appliance affected.  Reactive currents are those electricity currecnts that do not create any useful work but merely flow back and forth in the powerline.  Reactive currents increase the total current even if the effective current remains the same. 

The increase in current means more loss as heat.  Taking into account the internal resistance of appliancs, loss into hear is at least 10%.  Thus, any reduction in reactive currents leads to significant savings.  The extent of reactive currents is expressed by the parameter previously mentioned, called the power factor.  The power factor can be thought of as the ratio of the effective (real) current to the total current.  It is always a number between 0 and 1.  The closer the power factor is to 1 the less the reactive currents along with the ohmic losses. 

The Micro Plug eliminates reactive currents and raises the power factor up to 0.99.  This not only reduces the ohmic losses to great extent but also eliminates penalties that some utility companies charge for power factors less than 0.75. 

Another feature of the Micro Plug is its filtration of harmonic oscillations, which are secondary current waves with frequencies that are multiples of the standard distribution line AC frequency.  These small oscillations occur when power is suddenly drawn from the powerline as for instance happens when an AC motor starts up.  The harmonic oscillations not only increase the current flowing in the line but also can cause voltage drops at other device connected to the line and possibly resulting in damageor wear-and-tear in those devices.  Elimination of harmonic oscillations elongates the useful utility period for those devices.

Adding up all these features, Micro Plug is a device that raises the quality of the electricity used, reduces wasteful currents, and protects the appliances from voltage drops and surges, reducing maintenance or replacement fees.  Additional information can be found at www.solarstationinc.com.