How efficient our AC stabilizer are...

As the soaring heat in summer and ever rising EB bills we are seeking ways to minimize the cost by paying premium for the Inverter and 5* A/C's. How ever till the time I failed to realize a big parasitic load ever connected to our A/C. I am referring to our stabilizer. Recently we replaced old analogue meter to digital meter and it has host of functions. Something that has caught my mind (power consumption). We have the energy efficient Carrier Estrella which consumes less than 1000W for 1.0T and its running great for the past 7 years. Its still surprise everyone for the quick chilling and noiseless operation.
We run the AC occasionally in the winter. During the similar run we saw meter flashing 10+ Amps. Asked my dad is there any heavy load running apart from A/C and nothing was running except A/C was his reply. Quick calculation (Power = V (voltage) * I (current) ) shows excess of 2000Watts. I was shocked and felt it could be due to 7 years old AC but still cant digest 2300 Watts for 1.0T . Dad suggested to bypass stabilizer and connect directly to the mains. Initial start shows around 3.8Amp and we are relieved. At full load 18C after some 15 mins of running current stabilizes to 4+ amps. Turned off AC and connected via stabilizer and current jumped to 10+ Amps which means less than 50% efficient. The stabilizer we tested was Vguard VWR400 double booster.

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Power Factor
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Current consumption inline with Stabilizer
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Stabilizer in usage
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AC running without stabilizer

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Quick calculation:
With stabilizer
I know AC power consumption is measured by multiplying power factor. Since I am not good in Electrical I shall leave it to pundits.
P=V*I (230*10.88= 2502 Watts)

Without Stabilizer
230*4.29= 987 Watts

Its really an eyeopener for me and TE reader how inefficient our AC stabilizers are . Stabilizer achieve 90+ efficiency close to its full load. 4KVA stabilizer is just 30% loaded. It could be that reason for highly inefficient in operation.
 
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if power distribution companies starts to bill according to power factor, domestic consumers will be screwed big time. eventually they'll do it and therefore they are moving towards digital meters. we have so many inefficient appliances at our home... the one that goes unnoticed is CFL.
 
if power distribution companies starts to bill according to power factor, domestic consumers will be screwed big time. eventually they'll do it and therefore they are moving towards digital meters. we have so many inefficient appliances at our home... the one that goes unnoticed is CFL.
Can you tell me how PF is taken into account for the power consumption. Vaguely I remember P=V*I* PF for AC power supply. I think almost all stabilizer companies are forgetting an important aspect to bypass stabilizer requirement when the inline voltage is high enough to be stabilized.
 
I have tested few more stabilizers in the mean time and I found vguard VEW500 is very good. At no load the consumption is very negligible once the load kicks in its almost equal to ac running without stabilizer. I have tested another local brand name SPARK . At no load its happily sips out 100W and at load anything around 100~120 watts. Vguard was better due to the fact it uses toroidal copper transformer hence less loss of power. We were trying to reduce power consumption by using cfl's, led's and efficient fans and tend to miss out larger power monster
 
^ have you tested Vguard VG400 ? i am using it with one of my ACs .[DOUBLEPOST=1430814465][/DOUBLEPOST]Maybe i should replace it with sollatek AC guard , i just need protection, dont need voltage boost .
 
I have the exact same stabilizer for my 1.5T Voltas Vertis S AC. Why the hell would the stabilizer pull double the current required? I need to make some tests when I go home at the end of this month.
 
While a stabilizer won't double the power consumption, do expect a 15% odd jump in power consumption as most AC AC transformers tend to be ~85-90% efficient

Quoting a post from another thread

Search for sollatek voltage guards - If you don't need voltage step-up/down , you are better off with their power monitors that simply monitor voltage/frequency/spikes and cut off the power if outside tolerance limits
Cheaper, more efficient and better protection than stabilizers
 
I might received a defective piece. My point is to check the operating current without stabilizer and with stabilizer then compare the power lost in stabilizing the voltage. AC is the only unit connected to the meter and say even 10~15% loss is a huge amount considering 1000+ watts of power consumption by the AC. In chennai without triple boost one cant even think of turning on so I can forget about Sollatek unless I live in society with HT transformer line.
 
10~15% loss is a huge amount considering 1000+ watts of power consumption by the AC. In chennai without triple boost one cant even think of turning on so I can forget about Sollatek unless I live in society with HT transformer line.
Actually if your stabiliser is actually doing a heavy step up, it will dissipate more heat and thus work at less than typical efficiency - thus expect your power losses to be more than 10-15%
Unfortunately you don't really have a choice in that regard.
my suggestion for a voltage monitor was for those who have a regular power supply and the stabiliser is simply passing the voltage to the secondary 1:1
 
Its acceptable when the stabilizer is doing regulation, but when the voltage is already in the range there is a loss of 100w just by passing through stabilizer. I am referring to locally made stabilizer. Fortunately vguard vew500 seems to bypass the transformer when the line is regulated.
 
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