Are Plug and Save Powersavers a Scam?

I'm going to paste below a video from Plug and Save which encouraged me to purchase their Powersaver in March 2009.

My first thoughts, as a qualified and experienced engineer was that it was bound to be a scam product. Their website is like one of those horrible long sales pages you sometimes see online with nearly no technical information. Do Plug and Save actually know what it is they're manufacturing or not?

I was discussing theproduct with a colleage a week later and he said he'd be interested in testing one of these powersvers because, if they do work, they'll be very popular.

At about $250 Plug and Save's PowerSavers are expensive but they're a lot less than the original powersave-manufacturer KVAR (KVARPowerSavings.com) (who nowadays nobody really disputes sell legitimate power-saving products). They do costs a lot more than small $20 alternatives that are sometimes hyped up on ebay but there's enough information about these $20 products to confirm they just plain don't work.

Anyway, inspired by the fact that I get lots of protection from my credit card company if I have any problems I decided to take Plug and Save up on their 90 day guarantee.

Their guarantee doesn't state whether it begins that day I order or the day I received it and, as they ship by airmail from Thailand it took about 2 weeks before it arrived in the post.

Ok, my order arrived. I was pleased to see it came well-packaged and that I was emailed by a real person when my order was posted.

These products are made and shipped from Thailand so the psotage was actually quite expensive ($25) but these are heavy devices.

Strangely my unit G came with a plug but, when I emailed Plug and Save for installation instructions I was told to chop the plug off! I'm really not sure why it comes with one fitted if this is how they install.

Installation instructions were very minimal. To wire it up to my house I was told (by email) to "ask an electrican to do this for you [me] and to wire it into the breaker".

We created a small circuit comprising of two motors with nothing else. We determined to measure Kilowatt reductions rather than amp reductions as power companies do not monitor amerage used for residential customers.

Aiding us was our kill-a-watt power meter.

With our PowerSaver 9 turned off our motors ran at 320 kilowatts.

Turning the PowerSaver 9 on reduced our readings to 278 kilowatts.

Our controlled and limited test showed us an immediate saving of 15%.

15% savings based on our simplified experient is a lot less than the potential 'up to 40%' savings that their website implies.

Returning to their site I see now that savings do vary between country and, as our good ol' American power system is a more efficient beast than elsewhere I am happy with this kind of saving myself.

Our home has space to install the PowerSaver directly into the main breaker. Installatino took about 20 minutes as it took a while to verify that the wring was correct. PlugandSave are not especially helpful with their instalation instructions but we didn't encounter any issues after then.

In theory our savings should begin immediately.

Ok, this is probably what you're most interested in.

Do Plug and Save's PowerSavers Actually Work?
- Yes they do. The principles are sound

Will you save 40%?
- Unlikely. Expect savings of around 15-20% if you're in a developed country. I really can't comment on other countries but it should be more than 20%.

Are They Worth Buying?
- Yes. They are cheaper than other established PowerSavers on the market therefore the time it will take to recover the money you've spent will probably only be a few months. Even if (pessimisticlly) these PowerSavers only last a few years, you've plenty of time to recover your purchase cost.

Should You Buy One?
- I'm not going to answer that as everyones needs are different. I'd recommend one though if your monthly eletric bill is over $80 though.

I'm not adding any affiliate links here so I don't really care if you buy or not.

http://plugandsave.com
This company produces the PowerSaver that I've reviewed here.

http://kvarpowersavings.com
This is probably the most established power-saver manugacturer in the USA at this time. They're expensive and I don't think they sell online.

http://power-factor-correction.com
A good site to understand how power factor correction actually works.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/travelpower/7657/
Recommended Kill-A-Watt power meter