Quote Originally Posted by pyramid00 View Post
Unless you build it yourself, e.g. the 10% savings for ref/ac electricity saver designed by nasa (once available as a kit from alexan); the soldering iron elect saver using a dimmer control (also for resistive loads). I am not sure about the phase-control
elect saver shown on tv before. In theory, it may save, maybe saves but very less. Not worth buying, unless your load is purely capacitive or inductive. Such loads does not exist, except in books.
The current designs of inverter type refrigerators and ACs incorporate those among others, using power semiconductor devices and power management chips.