Was wondering if anyone has installed one of these in a home and seen the benefits?  What brand seems to be the best?

Thanks

Residential utility rates (unlike industrial power) are unaffected by the power factor of the load(s), and installing a home power conditioner has zero effect on appliance efficiency or your power bill.

dana,

I've watched some video's and it appears that where they do shine is in increasing the efficiency (Power Factor closer to 1). If it does not save energy (Kw hour usage), by increasing the PF closer to 1..would that not possibly help your inductive loads last longer (run cooler?)

Only if you're running the house wiring close to the electrical code limits on current would you get even the slightest efficiency boost out of it.

Don't confuse power factor with efficiency- it's not the same thing. Having a high power factor lowers the average current in the house wiring, but the difference resistive losses are usually negligible if you have wiring that meets code for the loads.

I agree. Maybe if someone is generating their own power with an inverter. Otherwise it won't come even remotely close to paying for itself.

I thinking about it I was wrong: Unless you place that compensating capacitance right AT the inductive load, your house wiring still incurs all of the excess current from the lousy power factor.

That would be nice from utility utility company's point of view since you've reduced reactive load currents on their grid, but putting the power factor correction at the panel does very little for you on your side.

In many industrial buildings being nice to the utility pays, since they usually CHARGE those customers for uncorrected power factor current, but that's not the case for residential. That's because the power factor and total power of those inductive loads in residential applications is so small that its not worth them keeping track of it to charge you. If it's not worth it to them to even keep track, what are the odds there's an economic argument for fine-tuning your power factor of your house with one of those (not super-cheap) capacitor-crates?