Product review (1 stars): PowerGard CT1688 Energy Saving Device
I am an Electronics Engineer. So, when I do something this dumb...it is always a little embarrassing. I suppose I also wanted to see what this was... One can find almost nothing technical on it on the Internet. So, I went to forums discussing the device. There was someone posing as a consumer that was just thrilled about how this had lowered her electric bills in half. The other person was a "Professional Electrical Engineer." Please, know there is a difference in the emphasis of the training and the "Electrical Engineer" was a full Professional Electrical Engineer (This requires not just college, but certification and specific in the field job experience), which means that they have the approval to sign official drawings for systems that are usually large-scale implementations.  Professional Electrical Engineers' bread and butter are power transfer, safety and efficiency.  They make sure getting power to your wall sockets or industrial equipment is done effectively and they consider Power Factor as part of their calculations for effective Alternating Current (AC) transfer.

The Electrical Engineer discussed Power Factor technology. You can google it--basic concept but long discussions.  In laymen's terms, it is essentially the Ratio of the measurement of VA (Volt-Amps) to Watts. We glossed over this very fast in my Circuits class in college  (never needed it until now). I mostly work as a very experienced professional in Telecommunications, including but not limited to Radio Frequency (RF) and Digital (Packets, Coding, etc...) technology. So, not experienced outright in PF technology, I can rightly be accused of not having done my homework before purchasing this seductive device.  If you like you can even throw a rotten tomato or two.  I will duck...

Also, I have used PF technology with Isolation Transformers that are extremely expensive and I was not paying enough attention to this device not having an output either.  Anyway, I plugged many electrical appliances into the same 15 amp home circuit from the fuse box with this in that circuit and every time it worsened (that means lowered) the PF.  It did not raise the PF towards 1.0 that would be the ideal power transfer in ANY test scenario I put it through.

In fact adding more appliances (without this vampire device required at all) to the circuit that was active, tend to have a cumulative improvement on the PF measurement.  This is because each appliance has power correction in its incoming power supply and this presumably additive effect moved the PF up in most cases.  Surprisingly, this was true for adding Fans (read "motors!", i.e., a "reactive load" with an internal capacitor to do PF matching already standard!).  These motors actually improved things (because of the reactance balancing for incoming power).

I was able to measure a lot of devices at once by using a Power Distribution Unit (PDU)...fancy for a large extension cord with many outlets concept.  My PDU could have as many as 15 separate device plugged in at once, if I chose.  I conducted a lot of testing on Compact Fluorescents, Computers, a hog Printer, fax, phone, CO2 sensor meter, you name--I've got it.)

The device appears to be aimed at a European market and is made in China.  And, yes I happily voided the warranty to be able to report the truth to you.  I first took a screwdriver and drilled through the silicone caulk covered with a fragile warranty seal at the bottom, and then found this to be very gummy.  BTW--This will not help anybody from what I can tell:  European or American.  And, then I just finally pried the case open with a twisting screwdriver.  It contains a small circuit board, the back of the switch, the back of the pretty Blue LED and two useless cylindrical ~Electrolytic Capacitors in it of not substantial values.  None of this stuff will do a thing for you.

And, I just read the review below.  Either the poor woman was faked out or that is some sales person posing as somebody else just to rope you in.

I speculated that perhaps the device could help me with Electro-Magnetic-Interference (EMI), with all the other plug-in stuff available that purports to do this.  "Plug one in you won't notice much, but plug five in and God will come to visit your home theatre and speak to you through it."--that is I being a tad melodramatic...but, not far from the claims out there for similar electrical noise quieting devices.

Only when I received the device did it purport to fix EMI. I happened to have P3 Kill-A-Watt 4460 plug in devices I had just received. I had a couple of hopes. I have an old printer that dims the lights as it pulses. I had fantasies that this would "buffer" the old piece of junk printer's ageing power supply by doing power factor correction and stop the dimming and fix EMI from propagating to my Hi-End Audio system.

In all instances, this device lowers Power Factor (that is bad!!!...not good!!!...not green!!!), as measured by the 4460. And, it requires 2.5 amps to run (according to its label on the back...at 120 VAC...ARE YOU FEELING GREEN YET???...YOU SHOULD BE). It seems to suck this energy from the VA side and not register as Watts. I did not bother to leave it plugged in for a whole month to see what...if anything this would do to the United States "Watts measured/billed" electric bill.

Frankly, I figured if it did do anything..."it would increase my bill at a minimum and go relatively un-noticed at a maximum."  Most of us cannot turn everything off in our homes to do that test.  And, you don't have to, because I did enough testing for you to be the fool you were going to become by buying this!

Absolutely do not buy this piece of snake oil junk under any circumstances!!!

Also, there was no difference noticeable on the Printer Power Supply.  The printer ran no differently and the lights kept happily dimming on that circuit during large pulsing current draws to the fuser inside of the HP LaserJet 4 from the late 80's early 90's.

Too make a long stupid story short. I TOOK THIS AND CHUCKED IT IN THE TRASH!!! Please, please SAVE YOUR MONEY FROM THIS SCAM. This item is a zero and is a TOTAL RIP-OFF. Like the Professional Electrical Engineer (P.E. EE) said, there is no free lunch...if it did what claimed...it would be International News on the front page of every paper in the world. DO NOT BUY THIS. THIS IS A RIP OFF. Even the most real PF correcting technology is suited for industrial situations like smelting plants with large motors and the savings/gains in efficiencies in those finely tuned situations is on the order of 2% to 3% at best and not through a device that even remotely resembles this.

THIS WILL NOT MAKE YOU A GREEN CONSUMER, EXCEPT IN YOUR COMPLEXION.

Matthew John Hammett (BSEE w/honors) 1987 and working ever since...

You cannot give zero stars...so one star was provided to get this out there.