Greetings to all do-it-yourselfers, as well as summer residents and gardeners!

We are talking about a simple bucket stand that allows you to place this bucket on top of another. As a result, when we remove the top bucket for a few seconds, for example, to pour dirty water out of it, the water continues to flow into the bottom bucket, rather than pouring onto the ground, wasted and splashing our feet.

I will explain the meaning of this homemade product in more detail. We have a short piece of rubber hose connected to the garden water pipe. It serves two purposes: firstly, with the help of this hose you can fill barrels that are nearby, and secondly, the end of this hose, put on a special holder, acts as a spout for a garden washbasin or washstand. This is what he looks like.

It must be said that under this hose you can not only wash your face or wash your hands, but also simply pour a bucket of clean cold tap water, or wash something, for example, some vegetables, berries or fruits.
In this case, the used water does not pour onto the ground, but ends up in a bucket that stands under this hose.

Naturally, you often have to empty dirty water from this bucket and also rinse it. As a rule, this water simply pours out under neighboring bushes.

And here, at first, we encountered great inconvenience. The fact is that when pouring water from a bucket or rinsing it, you constantly have to turn off the water by closing the ball valve, otherwise the water from the hose continues to pour onto the ground, splashing your feet and simply going to waste.

It is very inconvenient to close the tap every time, especially since rinsing the bucket and pouring water out of it only takes a few seconds. Therefore, I came up with the idea of ​​placing this bucket on another, into which the water flowing from the hose will actually fall when we remove the top a bucket to empty the water from.

However, this required a special stand, which I decided to make.

Materials and tools

This stand is very simple and to make it, I needed the following accessories:

Materials and fasteners:

• The board is 2 cm thick, 5-6 cm wide, and 60-70 cm long.
• A wooden block 2 cm thick, 3 cm wide, and 50-60 cm long.
• Eight wood screws 4x45 mm.

Tools:

• Drawing and measuring tools (pencil, tape measure and square).
• Awl.
• Jigsaw with wood saw.
• Electric drill-screwdriver.
• Metal drill with a diameter of 4 mm.
• Spherical cutter for wood.
• Screwdriver bit RN2, for driving screws.
• Sandpaper.

Procedure for making the stand

First, we cut the board and the block into two identical pieces. The length of these blanks will depend on the diameter of the top of the bucket on which the finished stand will be placed.

Then at both ends of each board we drill holes with a diameter of 4 mm for screws.

And using a spherical wood cutter, we countersink these holes for countersunk screw heads.

Well, then we screw the boards with screws to the ends of the bars.

And now our stand is ready!

I did not paint it, since it will still be wetted with water quite often, and the paint can peel off quite quickly. Of course, under such conditions, this stand will not be very durable. However, for four years, I think it will be enough. And then you can easily make a new one.

Filling the bucket

Now all that remains is to place this stand on the lower bucket.

And put the top bucket on it yourself.

This way, when we need to remove the top bucket for a few seconds to pour water out of it, we won’t have to close the tap, since the flowing water will fall into the bottom bucket and accumulate there.

As a result, the ground under the buckets will be dry and your feet will be clean and dry, and the water that will accumulate in the lower bucket will be used, since it can be used to water the garden. Moreover, this water is clean, and during the day it will heat up and by the evening it will already be quite warm.

Thus, we will also significantly save water, since we will practically not waste even one extra drop of water.
Well, that's all for me! Bye for everyone, more simple and useful homemade products that increase the convenience of country life!

There is probably no person who has not encountered intrusive advertising on the Internet and on television about miraculous boxes that, after purchase, just plug into an outlet and instantly your electricity bills will decrease several times. There are a lot of varieties. One of the most common is electricity saving box. I’ll say right away that this is all a scam and a deception of gullible buyers who do not understand the laws of electricity.

Appearance of the saver and its connection

This energy saving device has a low cost and this captivates consumers who hope to recoup their costs within two to three months of operation. This is what they look like externally:

As the advertisement says, the device will not only save you energy up to 30-50%, but also protect you from overvoltages that occur during a thunderstorm.

On the front side there are multi-colored LEDs, and on the back there is a plug for a standard socket. The differences between devices are most often not significant - different inscriptions or a different body shape and color.

The technical parameters of the electricity saving box specified by the manufacturer are as follows:

• ⚡ voltage 90V-250V

There are instances with a power of 25 kW and even 40 kW.

Naturally, the load should be connected in parallel to the device, for example into double sockets or a carrier.

Moreover, the closer you are to the electric meter, the greater the “saving effect” will be observed.

Of course, it is worth thinking about the power allowed for connection. For example, at 15 kW and a voltage of 250 V, the current will be about 60 A. And this is already comparable to the load of a welding machine. Do you think the electrical wiring in your apartment and the plugs of the devices will remain intact if you connect such a load for a long time?

Real test of the device

How can you clearly understand that this energy saving device is a scam? It’s very simple, just plug in several powerful current collectors into the sockets and take certain measurements on the meter. On an electronic meter, to calculate consumption, you will need to count the number of pulses on the LED over a certain time. And on a mechanical one - the number of disk revolutions.

The experiment will need to be repeated in two versions:

• ⚡ without the device plugged into the network
• ⚡ with the device turned on

So, we completely turn off all the load in the apartment (refrigerators, TVs, etc.). We connect it to an outlet with a load of approximately 1 kW. The greater the load, the faster the disk will spin or the diodes on the meter will blink.

We begin to count revolutions for a certain amount of time. For example, the CO-505 meter makes 600 disk revolutions or 10 revolutions per minute in 1 hour with a connected load of 1 kW.

Accordingly, after waiting 2 minutes, you will count approximately 20 revolutions, depending on the error and voltage on the meter.

You absolutely do not need to know the exact power of the connected load. It is enough to correctly calculate the disk revolutions for a certain time.

After this, plug in the power-saving device into a power outlet and measure the disk revolutions again. And lo and behold, in my example (load of 1 kW) their number will again be about 20, that is, exactly the same as without the device. You can plug anything into the outlet, the result will be the same.

Here is a table comparing the actual consumption of active power (this is what our meters take into account) measured not by a meter, but by a measuring device - a wattmeter, for an EkoEnerji brand saver 25 kW and 40 kW (measurement technology)

Test circuit option	Power consumption, W	Difference in %
Bulb 60W	without saver	61	0
	with energy saver 25kW	61	0
	with energy saver 40kW	66,3	+8,6
Electric fireplace 0.5 kW	without saver	496,5	0
	with energy saver 25kW	498	+0,3
	with energy saver 40kW	503,8	+1,5
Luminaire with fluorescent lamp	without saver	17,7	0
	with energy saver 25kW	19,4	+9,6
	with energy saver 40kW	21,2	+19,8
Rotary hammer at idle speed	without saver	556,1	0
	with energy saver 25kW	541,2	-2,7
	with energy saver 40kW	532,4	-4,3
Hammer+grinder+electric fireplace	without saver	1544,7	0
	with energy saver 25kW	1537,9	-0,4
	with energy saver 40kW	1514	-2

The “savings” effect (only about 4%) appeared only when connecting an electric tool.

However, this is not a saving of electrical energy at all - but a decrease in its useful power!

If we take into account the additional losses in the windings, which invariably form in this case, then the overall efficiency will be even lower. When connecting another load, the power consumption only increased!

What's inside the device

In order to finally make sure that this device does not produce any miracles of savings, let’s disassemble it and look inside.

This device does not contain anything ingenious. There are a fuse, a capacitor, LEDs, and diodes for rectifying AC voltage. This is its electrical diagram:

A capacitor is needed to smooth out the rectified voltage. And rectified voltage is necessary to power the LEDs. That is, the device works for itself. It does not pass any payload through its circuit.

Think about the savings that can come from such “internals”?
The main effect in the device is carried by the capacitor. It improves the power factor. Similar things are found in throttle lighting lamps.

This is exactly what manufacturers are playing on. They claim that the device is capable of compensating for reactive power losses when connecting devices such as refrigerators, washing machines, and vacuum cleaners. In the advertisement they clearly measure the current with a clamp meter and the readings actually decrease!

• ⚡ firstly, the clamps measure the total current (its active and reactive components)
• ⚡ secondly and most importantly, when you turn on the device, due to the capacitor inside, the coefficient increases. power

The formula for calculating power consumption is:

P-power, I-current, U-voltage, cosϕ-coefficient. power

From the formula it is easy to understand that if your current decreases, say by 20%, and at the same time (and this is exactly what happens “thanks to” the device) the coefficient increases. power by the same 20%, the power consumption was 2 kW, so it will remain 2 kW.

The above text outlines the essence of the work regarding complete energy saving devices (that is, they have at least a capacitor). Recently, the following examples have become increasingly common:

When the energy saver “works”

However, we must pay tribute, in rare cases, such savers are actually able to reduce the amount of electricity recorded by the meter. On some sites you can even find reviews from satisfied customers about successful savings when using saving boxes and other boxes. How can this be explained?

This is explained by the fact that individual energy saving devices are capable of creating pulses in the electrical network that cause the magnetic flux to lag behind the load current and thereby introduce an error into the operation of the meter. This is achieved not at any load, but only at a certain value.

But such a “trick” can only be done with old-style meters, which were widely used in the Soviet Union.

Modern metering devices are simply not susceptible to the influence of not only such “interference,” but also many others.

6 reasons to never use savers

In addition to the fact that this device is useless as such, it can also cause very real problems:

1. The device itself consumes a small, but certain number of watts (do the light bulbs glow due to something?)
2. There is a varistor in the device circuit, and if the voltage in the outlet suddenly jumps, this particular thing will become a source of fire
3. In some circuits, the capacitor is installed without a current-limiting resistance. In this case, the device becomes not only useless, but also dangerous.
4. Energy savers can create unacceptable resonance in the network, thereby causing failure of energy-saving lamps
5. Theoretically, if similar devices are plugged into sockets in all apartments of a multi-storey building at once, oscillatory processes may occur in the electrical wiring, which will disable electronic household appliances (even those simply turned on in standby mode - a phone on charge, a TV in Stand By mode )
6. At night, when the load is minimal, energy savers can further increase the voltage in all outlets in the apartment. And if yours was not small anyway, don’t be surprised that the refrigerator or other equipment stops working in the morning.

With the rise in prices for energy resources, in particular for electricity, as well as with the increase in the number of household electrical appliances, every consumer connected to the energy supply has an absolutely logical decision to take measures to save energy. There are many ways to save wasted electricity, however, not so long ago a new, innovative device, according to the manufacturer, appeared that will significantly reduce the consumption of electrical energy both in the apartment and in the house. He's called a saver. What is it, how does this super device work, what does it consist of? And also the main question that interests everyone is whether it is true or false that it will help you save money. Before using and purchasing it, you need to understand it more deeply and carefully. In this article, the editors of the site will tell you the whole truth about what an energy saver is and how people are being scammed.

What does an economizer look like and what does it consist of?

This device looks very compact and is completely inexpensive, which, in principle, captivates the consumer, and also encourages him to part with his hard-earned money for the benefit of future huge savings. As the advertising text on them states, the “miracle” device will not only save energy costs, but will even somehow be able to protect all electrical appliances plugged into sockets from being struck by lightning during a thunderstorm. Below is the most commonly found electricity saving device in stores, which the manufacturer calls the Electricity Saving Box.

There are two LEDs installed on the front panel, indicating that the saver is in good working order and is ready to perform its assigned functions. It may have several adapters for connecting to sockets of different designs, so that it can be more universal. The design of the energy saver can also have various shapes, rectangular or round, but this does not change the essence of its work.

The technical parameters of the energy saver are indicated on the back:

• Model.
• Operating voltage from 90 to 250 V.
• AC power frequency, 50 Hz-60 Hz.
• The maximum load power at which it is effective is 15,000 W, that is, 15 kW.
• Serial number.

Some of the specimens are designed for fairly heavy loads, which should first of all alert the buyer; sometimes there are models that indicate a power of even up to 40 kW. With such power, the current should be approximately 180 A, which is not used in domestic conditions, since input circuit breakers most often have a rated operating current of 25, or 63 A maximum. Well, let's say, let's say this is the maximum indicator of the economy, and it works at half power, with a reserve of power.

The principle of operation of the device for saving electricity, as advertising resources and the manufacturer again claim, is based on converting the reactive component into an active one and sending it to the network, thereby the saver removes the reactive component from the network. Indeed, the power consumed from the network contains both active and reactive components. At large substations of enterprises, so-called reactive power compensators are installed, which is created by large inductive loads. It appears due to the operation of asynchronous motors, transformers and everything that converts electricity into an electromagnetic field. Compensating devices are:

1. Transversely connected capacitor banks.
2. Reactors.
3. Synchronous motors in compensation mode (overexcitation).

This is what reactive power compensators look like, based on a capacitor bank:

However, meters installed at enterprises and distribution substations keep track of both active and reactive components, while at home there are metering elements that count only active energy. Therefore, there is no point in compensating reactive power, especially since in household devices it is so insignificant that it is not even worth taking it into account.

In order to be convinced and understand the device of the saver, you will have to disassemble it and see what is inside it, a capacitor compensation battery or a synchronous generator. And this is what is inside:

And here is his diagram:

Several electronic elements such as a capacitor, resistors, LEDs, and a diode assembly for rectifying the mains voltage, and at best its fuse. In fact, this is an electrical circuit for powering LEDs, and nothing more, which not only will not save electricity, but, on the contrary, consumes some, albeit small, very insignificant part of the electricity to glow the LEDs. Devices connected from an outlet have almost no reactive energy, and as stated above, the meter does not count it, so the saving effect is zero.

Important! Now we are talking not only about an energy saver Electricity Saving Box, but also about such devices as Econor And Power Saver. All of them are a scam, there is no real benefit from using them, much less saving electrical energy, of course! Below this article we have provided links to more rational and also legal ways to pay less for light!

Real life saver test

Let's move on from theoretical concepts and research to practice. In order to make sure whether the energy saver saves electricity, that is, it makes the meter spin more slowly at the same load. There are two practical ways to do this that everyone can try:

1. Connect any one device to the electrical network and note how many revolutions the meter disk makes if it is electromechanical, and if it is electronic, then how many LED blinks in a certain period of time. On each of the accounting elements it is indicated, for example, that 600 disk revolutions correspond to one kilowatt. Well, this is not so important because you need to carefully calculate the number of revolutions for at least 10 minutes with the device turned on and off to save money.
2. The second method is more accurate and faster. To do this, you will need any electrical appliance, no matter what power consumption. This can be done with both a light bulb and a drill, since inside it is, in fact, an electric motor, which is an inductive load. And an ammeter (digital multimeter) is also needed, since only when electric current flows through the meter will it keep track of electricity, and the current, in turn, will not appear without connecting the load. We connect the load through a series-connected ammeter and turn it on. The measuring device will show the current strength in the circuit being tested; now we turn on the saver into an outlet located as close as possible to the load. If this device, to save money, in some incredible way reduces the current readings, then this will be proof that it is effective and really works.

Thus, any model of this device for saving electricity can, at best, reduce the reactive component of power in apartment networks by connecting a capacitor in parallel, but the meters do not count this energy. And such a capacity will not be enough to compensate for even the slightest reactive power, much less save electricity.

This subsection of the site will provide a description and schematic diagrams of simple devices for energy savings. The devices can be useful when using, for example, such frequently used household electrical appliances as a boiler, electric oven, electric kettle and others that consume large active power. Also, the devices can be useful when using not only heating electrical appliances, but also electronic devices, TV, computer, etc. The devices can be used with any electricity meters, including electronic ones, even those with a shunt or air transformer as a sensor.

The first of the devices is reactive power inverter it is simply inserted into a 220 V 50 Hz socket and the load is powered from it, while all electrical wiring remains intact. No grounding required. A reactive power inverter is a simple electronic device that converts reactive power into active (useful) power. The device is plugged into any outlet, and a powerful consumer (or group of consumers) is powered from it. It is made in such a way that the current it consumes is in phase ahead of the voltage (almost like in an ideal capacitor). Therefore, the meter treats the device as a capacitive load and does not take into account most of the actual energy consumed.

Second device - reverse power generator plugs into any outlet; no intervention in electrical wiring or grounding is needed. Consumers eat as usual and are not disturbed by the device. But the induction counter (with a disk) counts in the opposite direction, and the electronic and electronic-mechanical counters stop, which is also not bad. The device causes power to circulate in two directions through the meter. In the forward direction, due to high-frequency modulation of the current, partial metering is carried out, and in the reverse direction, complete metering is carried out. Therefore, the meter perceives the operation of the device as a source of energy that supplies the entire electrical network from your apartment. The counter counts in the opposite direction at a speed equal to the difference between full and partial metering. In this case, the electronic counter will be completely stopped.

Now a little about the legal side of the issue regarding the use of these devices. As for the reactive power inverter, everything depends on the agreement (document) between the consumer and the power grid, which is now signed by all legal and physical consumers of electricity. You need to read the contract carefully. If there is no phrase or sentence that says that the consumer is prohibited from using electrical devices that shift the phase between current and voltage more than a certain value or something like that (if there is, then who and how will measure this and it is unclear to check), then the conclusion arises that the use of this device is not a violation and, in general, the consumer has nothing to do with the imperfection of electric brushes that do not want to take into account reactive power. But in practice, it will be costly to come into conflict with power grids. Therefore, whether to use this device or not is all individual. As for the reverse power generator, its efficiency in terms of saving electricity is higher than that of a reactive power inverter, but most likely its use will be considered a violation. Therefore, to apply or not to apply this is also all individual.

How does the energy saving device work?

Several types of energy saving devices have appeared on the market - these are Smart Boy, Energy Savek and others. Manufacturers claim that such devices can save up to 50% of electricity.

Illiterate description of a device for saving energy

These devices are approximately the same in their design, so the arguments below will apply to all such savers. What advertising advantages do these devices have?

— compensation of the reactive component of the network;

— protection against interference in the electrical network.

These devices are used to save energy at loads from 5 kW to 50 kW. In different versions, the cost of these devices varies from $20 to $80, depending on the load power. Now let's open one of these devices and look at it from the inside.

Device diagram for saving energy

Having opened the electricity saving device, we see a small board with wires going to two LEDs and a film capacitor. On the board there is a small circuit for powering two LEDs from the mains, that is, the glow of the LEDs indicates the presence of mains voltage in the socket.

All the insides of the device to save energy

A 6 µF x 300 V film capacitor is connected to the network through a fuse, that is, there is nothing in the circuit except the capacitor (we do not count the 220 V indication in the socket as LEDs).

The entire circuit of the device for saving energy

Why do you need a capacitor and how can it save energy? Yes, indeed, the capacitor helps compensate for the reactive power of the network. To understand what the reactive component of the network is, let's dive a little into the theory.

Reactive power compensation principle

The total power of electricity can be considered as the sum of the active component, which is consumed by the active load (incandescent lamps, heating elements) and the reactive component. In turn, the reactive component has an inductive and capacitive part.

The inductive part of electricity includes loads such as electric motors, transformers, chokes, and the capacitive component includes loads with a capacitive nature - these are large groups of capacitors (powerful power supplies).

The active power of electricity is converted into mechanical or thermal energy, that is, it creates useful work, and the reactive component does not create useful work, but flowing through the wires, additionally heats them and causes losses of the active part of the power. To compensate for the reactive component, if it is inductive, capacitors are used, and for the capacitive component, inductance is used.

In industrial enterprises where electric motors are used in large numbers and with high power, capacitive compensating installations are used. Such an installation calculates the value of the inductive component at a given time and connects the required number of capacitors in parallel with the load for maximum compensation of the inductive component of electricity.

Reactive power compensators

During operation, the compensator changes the number of connected capacitors depending on the number of operating electric motors. Thus, the enterprise achieves high energy savings. Now let’s see what reactive load we have in our apartment and what its value is. Electric motors are present in refrigerators, washing machines, and fans.

To compensate for this reactive part of the electricity, you need to connect capacitors much larger than 6 μF at the moment when the washing machine or refrigerator is running. If the capacitor is constantly turned on, then, while charging, it takes electricity and spends it on heat generation. Thus, it does not save energy, but wastes it.

This capacitor is also not suitable as a filter, since, for example, for switching power supplies the filter has a completely different capacitance value. It turns out that the device for saving electricity is completely useless. You'll just be throwing money away. Manufacturers of these devices may also install a random number generator to falsely display percentage savings.

In addition to such devices, there are other homemade schemes for energy-saving devices. In such schemes, high-frequency generators are placed in series with the load, which output high-frequency pulses to the network. Allegedly, the meters do not see the high-frequency load.

The meter doesn’t care about the type of load, it still counts the regularly consumed electricity. There is no need to look for all sorts of tricks for free electricity. Meter designers also do not stand still and are well aware of all the options for theft of electricity.

If you want to achieve good savings, install a two-tariff meter. And program all powerful electrical appliances to turn on in the evening, when electricity is cheap. Turn off the lights behind you when leaving the room. Install LED lights everywhere (it's not that expensive). So you will have noticeable energy savings and you won’t have to pay scammers for useless energy saving appliances.