Canadian Standards Association Confirms Technological Breakthrough of USES® Power Enhancement Systems
The prestigious Canadian Standards Association (CSA), the equivalent of Underwriters Laboratory in the U.S., has concluded a year-long look at a unique American energy efficiency product - USES® Shunt Efficiency Systems. With the release of its findings, USES MFG INC., the Connecticut-based manufacturer of this sole source, breakthrough technology, welcomes still further official acknowledgment of the potential of USES® systems for enhancing performance, protecting equipment and saving energy.The results of the CSA report support USES® claims that include five specific areas of benefit to the power consumer:
- Reduced kW consumption
- Reduced kWh
- Increased voltage
- Reduced amperage
- Increased power factor
The CSA testing parameters did not include quantitative measurement of significant additional factors - soft dollar benefits like surge and spike protection, reduced equipment wear and tear, and reduced total current content including harmonics.
Abitibi-Price is the Canadian pulp and paper manufacturer at which the USES® system was tested. With the combined power needs of their 10 locations in Canada and two in the U.S., Abitibi-Price consumes the equivalent of 1% of the electrical power generated in Canada. While the CSA report discusses results on a single USES® unit, there is a synergistic effect on power enhancement as additional USES® units are installed in parallel. An example of this impact come directly from Abitibi-Price, as reported in an article in INTERNATIONAL PULP & PAPER Magazine at the start of the CSA evaluation process in 1996.
"Fourteen months of tracking utility bills eventually led to the conclusion that, compared to the (Abitibi-Price) Centre's electricity consumption during the same calendar months in the previous three years, utility costs at the Centre came down by an estimated 10 percent. The Centre's power factor - which, without benefit of any capacitors or synchronous motors, had previously been below 0.9 - was also seen to have risen to a .99 level."
"...the test results were computed as yielding:
- 13.4% reduction in kW
- 33.1% reduction in kvar
- 20.3% reduction in kVA
- Power factor improvement from .78 to .85"
"Based on the above findings, the research team arrived at a general estimate that the device could reduce power consumption by ten to fifteen percent when properly applied. The payback period for the device was also projected at approximately 15 months."
The CSA report on USES® Shunt Efficiency Systems confirms similar findings at scores of application sites in the U.S. and Canada, from private homes to commercial and industrial facilities. It offers objective proof that USES® power enhancement equipment lives up to its promises with enhanced performance, protection and savings - good news to power users facing the new financial and operational challenges of energy management in the new millennium.