USES® success stories

KEEPING your power in top condition

An article run in the October 2019 edition of Building Management Hawaii featuring Power Shaver and USES. 

General Dynamics

A letter from the Information Technology part of General Dynamics.

General Dynamics
Information Technology
February 5, 2018

USES,

Just a brief note to let you know that we have had 3 of your units in operation since 2001without any issues. Cannot tell what the electric savings are as we are a leaser and not billed directly. I can however say that the repair machines due to spikes and low surges have been next to nothing.

Thank you for making a made in USA product!

Don Wood
Pawcatuck Facility Manager
General Dynamics IT
Pawcatuck, CT

ColdWater Seafood

How many capital investments pay for themselves in seconds? Not many, but that's what Coldwater Seafood Corporation of Cambridge, Maryland, experienced on a stormy November night in 1994. Coldwater had earlier that year purchased 11 USES® Mfg Inc. power-conditioning units. These units were advertised as offering advantages like cutting energy costs, improving power factor, and, somewhere down the list of benefits, superior surge, and spike protection. As a test, the units were installed on a limited basis, confined to the north end of their refrigeration plant. On the night of November 26, the plant experienced a "low voltage event," what was determined later to have been a voltage sag.

The electrical damage as a result of the subsequent power surge was devastating. Two of the three transformers supplying electricity to the south end of the building's refrigerators were knocked out, leading to refrigeration unit motor burnout.

The north end of the building, however, was a different story. Even though all transformers were wired-in parallel, and even though the north end was drawing 10 to 20 times the power of the south end, the USES® Mfg Inc. units lived up to their billing. They were able to stabilize the voltage and save transformers and refrigerator motors from damage. More importantly, they prevented the loss of between six- and eight-million dollars' worth of frozen fish, valued at roughly 200 times the cost of the USES® Mfg Inc. equipment. According to Coldwater officials, "The investment in the USES® units has certainly been repaid, particularly since they have also dropped the KW demand in the north end (of the plant) by 40 to 50 KW.” What was originally projected based on hard-dollar energy savings as having a one to three-year payback turned out to be a bit faster than expected. But it came as no shock to USES® Mfg Inc.

In an update to the Coldwater Seafood story, a letter was received recently from the company, noting, "We feel the USES® Units have been a very wise investment and have proved their beneficial effects on our electrical system. We have at present 41 USES® Units in service." Since their potentially disastrous low-voltage event, they have added 30 USES® units to their system. Smart business.

United States Postal Service

Federal mandates for energy conservation were not lost on the officials of a Jacksonville, Florida, U.S. Postal Service airmail facility. Faced with escalating energy bills, out-of-control inefficiencies, and power-factor correction charges from the local utility, it was time to make a move. Through contact with the local USES® Mfg Inc. distributor, the facility's engineer got the low-down on USES® Mfg Inc. power enhancement equipment. He liked what he heard. The technology behind the equipment offers a range of benefits, from reduced electrical demand to lowered amperage to reduced wear and tear on electrical equipment and appliances to improved power factor to surge and spike protection. But with a guaranteed payback of fewer than two years, the airmail facility took a flyer on the USES® Mfg Inc. express.

Our units were installed and placed between the power supply and the loads, which included eight roof-mounted air conditioners, two air compressors, three inbound sack conveyor belts, 12 portable conveyor belts, and facility lighting consisting of high-pressure sodium and fluorescent fixtures. "Too good to be true" were the murmurs within the facility as the units were put online. The murmurs didn't last long as the results – verifiable results – of USES® Mfg Inc. promises began to appear. Energy consumption went down – and has stayed down – by over 12 percent. Kilowatt demand dropped by nine percent, and the line current was reduced by 14 percent. The power factor, a measure of the energy efficiency of the system, went from 85 percent prior to installation of the units (an efficiency baseline that incurs power factor surcharges from most utilities) to 98 percent and 100 percent as read at the main power panel.

To quote from the manager for maintenance operations, "This would indicate to me that our entire facility is very energy efficient. We have installed a permanent metering system at the facility in order to monitor our electrical service. This metering verifies and confirms the numbers we have previously discussed. The bottom line effect is stimulating. The system is definitely performing to our expectations, and I would recommend it to anyone trying to control or reduce their electrical energy consumption."

Town of Monroe, CT

This letter from the town of Monroe, Connecticut, pretty much sums up the story of a successful USES® Mfg Inc. installation. It is from fiscal officer Jeffrey T. Whone to Paul E. Veerman of Strathmoor Electric, the contractor who sold and installed the USES® Mfg Inc. power enhancement system. The speed with which the system impacted the town's operational and financial budgets could never have been predicted, but the timing was right for all concerned.

Town of Monroe
Finance Department
August 28, 1997

Dear Paul,

On Monday, July 7, 1997, our communication tower at our building sustained a direct hit by lightning. The energy from that hit traveled down the wires into the Monroe Police communications equipment and did extensive damage. The lightning also jumped through a window outside the tower and entered our office computer network and did damage to our PCs. All the computers on that network sustained damage through the data communications lines.

Fortunately for us, USES® was installed on our power lines four days earlier on July 3, 1997. If there is any glimmer of optimism in this tragedy, it is that there was absolutely no damage to any electrical devices because of surges through our power lines. USES® completely eliminated any surges through the electrical lines that would have done damage to TVs, microwaves or computers, not on the network.

Even though we lost equipment through the communications lines, we saved a significant amount of dollars and equipment because of USES®' surge protection qualities. From a financial perspective, our payback on our investment in USES® was only four days. Savings on our electric bill was $307.00 the first month. This was better than the $219.00 guaranteed by USES®.

Sincerely,
Jeffrey T. Whone
Fiscal Officer

Abitibi-Price Pulp & Paper (CN)
American Cyanimid
Arrow Paper & Supply
Avery Abrasives
Baltimore University
Boston College
Boston University
Bristol Myers
Chapin & Bangs
Chase Bank
Chemical Bank
City of Boston
Chaparral Energy LLC
Coldwater Seafood Storage
Dresser Industries
Ethel Walker School
Facey Medical Foundation
Fairfield University
Farmington Arms
Federal Die Casting
Filenes
Finast Grocers
Fleet Bank

General Foods
General Electric
Gordon Manufacturing
Hartford Distributors
Hess Gas Stations
Hood Dairy
Hoyt Corporation
Integra Bank
Intermark Co.
Johnnie Foodmaster
JC Penney
Loomis Chaffee School
MC Machinery Systems
MDC (Hartford, CT)
National Airport
National Tire Wholesalers
New England Medical
North Ontario Mold Co. (CN)
Patrick Cadillac
Pawtucket Ice Rink
Pepsi-Cola Bottling
Pricesmart, Inc.

M Printing
POW Printing
Refleck Corporation
Reebok International
Rose Management (NYC)
Safeway Foods
Shaws Supermarket
Soteria Imaging Services
St. Francis Hospital
State Street Bank
The Simpson House
The White House
Thomas G. Thornton
Town of Monroe, CT
Town of Waterford, CT
U.S. Corps of Engineers
U.S. Marine Corps
U.S. Naval Academy
U.S. Post Office
United Lithography
Waterford School System
Waterford Treatment Plant