Voltage Control Guard or VCG1
AC neutral bus electromotive power rectification device

The GiG 2 web site claims savings of 15% to 28% in single phase applications (household power is single phase). I'd classify it as an unworkable device except that the sales pages lead consumers to believe that they will get substantial energy savings when the most likely improvement is zero. Most residential loads are purely resistive (electric hot water tanks, baseboard electric heating, electric stoves, incandescent lights etc.) and there is absolutely nothing you can do to improve these kinds of circuits.

After my first version of this page, I received correspondence, including some lab results from the company and it appears that like many inventors, they really believe they have a technological breakthrough and that success is just around the corner. I wish them luck. Unfortunately, other than notoriously unreliable consumer testimonials, there is nothing to back up these energy saving claims.

I reviewed the lab results and found the experiment to be fundamentally flawed. It consisted of a single 24 hour kWh totalization of energy usage with an undefined variable load (a bank of PC's). The single data point indicated a reduction of 7% in energy use. You have to control all the independent variables and show that results are repeatable. As for the testing company -- shame on you for shoddy work and providing a report that would have received an F as a university lab assignment.

If the claims were true, using a savings of only 5% on the US generation capacity of 4157 million MWh (in 2007) -- the annual savings would be in the billions of dollars in the USA alone. The obvious approach would be to patent, publish and then license the technology -- it would become standard equipment everywhere, the inventor would be richer than Bill Gates and a Nobel prize would follow.

There is no electrical theory to support the idea of any device that can perform this feat. The closest device is the power factor correction unit, but this only saves money in a commercial setting with inductive loads. So, immediately we are off to a bad start. Claims that defy our current our understanding of physics should immediately raise red flags.

From the marketing material, we have the following claims:

The Voltage Control Guard is a revolutionary device that returns unused energy to proper phase and polarity on the neutral side, thus decreasing the over all demand within the system.  It does not store or consume energy, and it has no moving parts, capacitors, or resistors.  Additionally, the VCG does not require the use of surge suppressors or spike protection. ... we use no capacitors, resistors, surge protection, spike protection, or moving parts. Our technology is revolutionary and patented, it has been independently proven, third party tested and supported by substantial case study data and consumer testimonials to verify that our product provides the savings reflected in our literature.

Consumers are not equipped to test energy saving devices and their testimonials are meaningless, even if well meaning. No device that connects to incoming power lines has ever been demonstrated achieving massive energy savings - so don't hold your breath.

Voltage Control Guard has a UL 916 rating and is approved by Met Labs.  Additional third party testing was performed by an independent laboratory and achieved positive results. Independent lab tests are an ongoing part of our research and development.

UL and CSA are only interested in product safety standards, like proper grounding and voltage leak tests so that consumers are protected from hazards. This is not an endorsement that a product performs as claimed. Their white paper doesn't mention the names of the independent testing lab. The CSA marking on the unit appears to be CSA 22.2 No. 205 , which is a standard for the safety of signal equipment (buzzers, bells, energy management, nurse call etc.).

 

In single phase electrical installations we are seeing savings ranging from 15 to 28 percent reduction in daily KWH. This is not believable. These are huge savings. The sponsored lab result provided showed 7% savings and this can be explained by other uncontrolled variables.

we make no warranties of any kind, express or implied, and specifically disclaim, following the term of the limited warranty, any warranty of merchantability, fitness of the device for a particular purpose, ... That at least, seems like a good idea.

The Voltage Control Guard is not a surge protector or line conditioner nor does it need this equipment to function as designed. This is true. There are no capacitors inside, so it can't correct the power factor of motors, nor are there any surge supressor devices inside.

The site "Save Energy North Carolina" states in their voltage control guard FAQ "We are currently awaiting our Energy Star approval and rating" - It is going to be a long wait. EnergyStar does not approve products. They do have categories where you can "qualify" if you meet certain standards related to water and energy use -- such as a refrigerator that uses 15% less energy than the minimum Federal standards for refrigerators. Devices like these, even if they did work, have no product category and cannot carry the EneryStar label. See the official energystar site for current product categories -- you will see there is no category for things like this. note: GiG2 agrees that this statement is incorrect and does not appear on the gig2 web site although it is used by others to promote the product.

the Voltage Control Guard reduces consumption of energy across the spectrum of loads within any residential or commercial application.  The highest savings is associated with inductive loads such as those found on motors, pumps, etc, including most heating and air conditioning equipment. This claim is based on their idea that electrical noise is being reclaimed and that motors would be source of this noise, as opposed to power factor correction.

Impact on Power Factor
Power factor testing was performed using the Extech 382905 on both three-phase and single phase systems with varying loads and real world power factors with and without the Voltage Control Guard One. No change was observed in the measured power factor when the Voltage Control Guard One was added to the circuit. - This is not surprising since they claim it is not a power factor correction unit, nor are there any capacitors inside. Additionally, it is shorted out by the neutral bus, so you would expect it to do nothing.

Example guarantee from a distributor ...

Purchase The VCG and have it installed by our licensed electrician.

• Monitor your energy usage over the next 90 days.
• Compare your usage (kilowatt hours) during the first 90 days to both the prior 90 days and the same period from the previous year.
• If you don’t realize at least a 5% savings in energy usage, we will uninstall the VCG and refund your money. It’s that simple
  
• How do you know if I have saved energy?
  To verify your energy usage and savings, we require that you share your historical billing information with us. You will need to provide us with your energy bills for first full 90 day billing cycle after installation of the VCG, the bills for the immediately preceding full 90 days billing cycle, and the energy bills from the same period in the previous year. With this information, we will be able to construct a 3 year usage trend and quantifiably determine in the form of a Savings Report if you have used less energy with the VCG. After receiving your billing statements, the Savings Report will be completed and sent to you within 10 business days. If the Saving Report shows that you have not experienced an energy savings, we will immediately contact you to schedule the un-installation of your VCG and provide you with a complete refund.

Some years, this could be a great deal for the distributor because even if the device does nothing at all, there will be random fluctuations of more than 5% just due to variations in degree days from year to year, let alone variations due to human activities. Heating and Cooling degree days are a measure of the difference between room temperature and the daytime average accumulated over the month -- and are great for estimating power consumption due to heating and air conditioning. I would expect roughly half of everyone to have bills lower (in kWh) last year and half to be higher. So half of all purchasers will not qualify for a refund, and may very well attribute the savings to the device. The other half will either not bother to get it removed or convince themselves that their bills would be even higher without the device. The fundamental problem with using annual comparisons is that there is no control over the independent variables. A science experiment where variables are not controlled is not science and you'd get an F it was a university lab assignment. The variables that control 90 day power usage include: outdoor temperatures, wind conditions, gallons of hot water used, household visitors, kitchen usage, light usage etc. A controlled experiment would set up some power loads like motors and lights and run them for a period of time - with and without the device. If (unlikely) there is an improvement, it should be able to be replicated consistently.

Here is an example of degree days for Central Park NYC, comparing three winter months across two years. If you had electric heat, most of your power bill during this three month period would be due to heating. Note that the variation between 2007 and 2008 is +13%. This is an example of why you can't simply compare bills across years and attribute the difference to an energy saving device.

An article in ABC's WCPO.com states: "We contacted Duke Energy and the department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Cincinnati....to see what they knew about Save Energy Ohio's energy saving gadget. But neither Duke nor the head of UC's Engineering Department knew anything about it. Both examined the company's website, but said it doesn't say enough for them to understand how the device works."

Well Duke Energy and University of Cincinnati EE, you are pathetic. Call a spade, a spade. If they had asked you about a warp drive coil or a Klingon cloaking device, would you have said "you don't understand how it works", or would you have stated "it is a scam". At the least, you could have stated "there is no theory to support a device that claims it can reduce power bills by up to 25%". Get some balls.

Ok .. enough madness. As long as this device claims massive savings of 15%-28% without substantial proof e.g. tested by a reputable laboratory (perhaps Consumers Reports or a government research lab) to prove it works and the laws of physics are amended to explain the behavior, It will remain here in our deceptions series.

Reference material for the curious:

1. The current company making these is GIG2 Group, Inc. website is www.gig2inc dot com
2. The previous name of the company was CUTT-A-WATT Incorporated. The old sites are archived at http://web.archive.org/web/20030618020052/http://www.cutt-a-watt.com/index.html and a similar site is at http://web.archive.org/web/20071012135343/http://cawenterprises.com/index.php

Technical analysis

The VCG is intended to be connected in parallel with the neutral bar in the household electrical panel. Internally, it consists of two coils in series made from about a dozens turns of 10 gauge wire. The coils are inserted into short lengths of PVC conduit and filled with metal filings. The diagram below is a crude representation of an electrical panel. The long rectangle is the "neutral bar" which is a block of heavy metal with holes and set screws. Wires are connected to the bus bar by inserting them into holes in the side of the bar and tightening a screw. Each circuit in the electrical panel (the 110 volt ones that go to wall sockets) has its hot wire connected to a circuit breaker while all the neutral wires are connected to the bus bar. The neutral bar is also grounded to earth so the voltage is virtually zero.

All things have electrical resistance (superconductivity aside), but the resistance of the heavy neutral bus bar is very small. If all the lights were on in the house as well as all your 110V appliances, the current travelling through the bus bar would result in a very tiny voltage drop from one end of the bar to the other due to the internal resistance of the bar. This voltage would be less than 1 millivolt. Adding the VCG to the circuit simply reduces the resistance of the resistance of the bar just a litte more. Of course you could achieve the same thing by using a larger electrical panel since larger panels have heavier and thicker bars to handle more wires. Lower resistance results in less heat loss in the bus bar but this "saving" would be absolutely negible in any residential setting. By negligible, I mean a penny a decade or worse. It should be obvious that there is nothing you can connect in parallel (effectively a short circuit) with the neutral (and grounded) bus bar that could possibly result in 5% to 30% energy savings.

 

Here is an analogy. You want to save on your water bill and are interested in the "miracle flush". You purchase it and a plumber comes to your home and installs an extra 1 inch pipe in parallel with your 4" sewer pipe. The toilet is supposed to now use less water to flush. The problem is that the toilet flushes a volume of water equal to the capacity of the flush box - so you achieved nothing. Same goes for electrical appliances -- if you turn on a 1000W hair dryer for an hour, you burn 1kWh of energy. It doesn't matter what you do to the sewer or bus bar, the hair dryer is not going to get hotter, blow harder or somehow use 30% less energy to dry your hair.

Here is a recent patent application with similar drawings from CUTT-A-WATT. The application is nonsense, and is not likely to be approved, although nonsense devices have been patented in the past. Here is their abstract:

"An AC neutral bus electromotive power rectification unit, comprising: a. a first coil unit, including a first conductive wire coil having a first end and an opposite second end, the conductive coil disposed in a first non-conductive tube and suspended in a ferrous matrix; and b. a second coil unit, including a second conductive wire coil having a first end and an opposite second end, the first end of the second coil unit being electrically coupled to the first end of the first coil unit, the second coil unit disposed in a second non-conductive tube and surrounded by a non-conductive material."

English translation of the above: "the first coil of copper wire (which is just the copper wire you use to wire up your wall sockets, wrapped around something the size of a finger about 14 times) is inside of a piece of plastic tubing (like PVC conduit or plastic water pipe from Home Depot) and filled with metal filings. A second coil, also in a plastic tube, is connected to the first one".

The real nonsense continues here. In particular, the phrase "electromotive power rectification" is nonsense. They are claiming:

"An AC neutral bus electromotive power rectification device for use with a neutral bus bar in an electrical power distribution box, in which a plurality of inside neutral wires are coupled to the neutral bus bar and in which one outside neutral wire is coupled to the neutral bus bar, comprising: a. a first coil unit, including a first conductive wire coil having a first end and an opposite second end, the conductive coil disposed in a first non-conductive tube and suspended in a ferrous matrix, the second end of the first coil unit electrically coupled to the neutral bus bar at a first position in which every neutral wire coupled to the neutral bus bar lies between the first position and a second position at which an outside neutral wire is coupled to the neutral bus bar; and b. a second coil unit, including a second conductive wire coil having a first end and an opposite second end, the first end of the second coil unit being electrically coupled to the first end of the first coil unit, the second coil unit disposed in a second non-conductive tube and surrounded by a non-conductive material, the second end of the second coil unit electrically coupled to the second position at which an outside neutral wire is coupled to the neutral bus bar. "

Here is the results of perfoming a circuit simulation with MultiSim:

In the diagram above, V1 is set to 120VAC 60Hz (household voltage in North America). The section labeled motor is a resistance and inductor to emulate a 1700W motor on a circuit from a fuse box. The current that goes through the circuit passes through the heavy bus bar in the electrical panel. Because the resistance of the bus bar (a heavy metal bar with screw connectors) is so low, the voltage drop across it is only 169 millionths of a volt. The VCG is connected across this extremely low voltage. Inside the VCG, there are two coils with an inductance of approximately 213 nH and internal resistance of 2.2 milli Ohms. This is based on the properties of common copper wire. The box in the lower left shows that the current flowing through the VCG is 50 thousandth's of an ampere. Not only is this very little current, there is also very little voltage so you are looking at microwatts (millionths of a watt).

The end result of this is an infitesimal reduction in the heat loss through the buss bar due to the reduced resistance of having and extra wire in parallel with it.

Therefore the probabality that this could result in a significant reduction of your power bill is zero. Absolutely zero.

Feedback

I am an electrical contractor, that is: I have a contractors license, though I work for a company owned by others. Wanted to make a comment or two on the Gig2 device you have analyzed.

• Promotion of this product is especially strong in some areas. Anecdotal and unreliable reports state the reason for it's popularity here is that the wife of a local car dealership owner purchased controlling interest in the Gig2 company shortly after surviving a fraud trial involving the dealership. Her brother was "allegedly" convicted in this trial.
• Directly reported evidence from techs who have installed "many" of these state: The Gig2 company also promotes this product as being from a "religiously run corporation", the company self promotes, in a mildly humorous (supposedly) way: They refer to the device as the "Go In God" device. This seems to "relax" some of their potential clients.
  
• I had the very great misfortune to have to sit through a 1 hour long "internet orientation" to this device, given by an "electrical engineer". He claimed his degree was from Michigan, and ended the orientation within seconds of my asking that question.
  
• These devices are selling "like hotcakes" here based on the completely impossible claims you cite. At least one major national retail chain, with very educated and successful people in charge, has begun installing these units in their stores.
  
• The UL listings are hysterical. They are, from my (possibly flawed) research: Listings that affirm this device is "safe" when installed as intended. Of course, you could get the same listing on the average rock, as long as you didn't throw it at anyone. The device is certainly safe, as it performs no function whatsoever.
  
• The company repeatedly claims (or did claim, haven't checked recently)that getting the "formal" UL certification is "too complicated and expensive" at this time and that UL "does not have a category" into which this device can be "classified". Unless you count the thing with the rock....

I am in the (very unfortunate) position of being associated with sales of this item, in spite of my well reasoned objections and diagnosis of this to my employer. Largely this is because it is very easy to be confused by a product that makes no definable statement as to it's function or operating principles. Also: Business stinks and these are worth a few hundred dollars apiece per sale.

Eventually the extent of the "effectiveness" of this product is going to be widely recognized, and my comments could be construed as " counterproductive" to our organization. I have successfully lobbied for one concession in my employment: I have asked to be excluded from direct sales of this item, and have the freedom to refer questions about this product to other staff members. I wouldn't call this a "moral victory", but at least it is something.
You are free to use any comments you wish in future print about this product (or just laugh at them).

Thank you for the article, I am glad to see this is beginning to be widely recognized, and hope it will quickly disappear.

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comments = In regards to the GIG2 VCG1: I know someone who has done a controled test of this device and it proved to be worthless. It is not even worth the cost of materials used to make it. I have seen what is inside of it and doubt if costs this company more than $15.00 to biuld it. This is truly a scam and alot of people are being robbed.The peddlers of this product should be investigated.

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