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VPhase Website.

I don't think I shall be bothering, myself. I'm already pretty handy with the "off" switch as it is.

Although (having said that) I wouldn't mind taking a look at one. I shall have to keep my eyes open on eBay, and at the car-boot sales!

Why not "build" one? sounds simple enough, just feed back the overvoltage out of phase with the i/p and bang!. i'm sure the electricity suppliers and regualtory bodies won't mind? i suppose the way forward would be to design a module that would fit into a standard distribution board and supply only the items that will make a difference, ie lighting ciruits.

As I say, Bill ... I already have a number of the cheaper (manual) versions. They're commonly known as "off switches".

But I'm just wondering what's actually inside those boxes. Not just a transformer, surely? Some sort of fancy SMPS, I reckon. All very well until it fails, and even something like that would itself dissipate (that is, waste) some energy.

Well I'm damned ... just look at this .pdf! A transformer switched in and out (bypassed) by a thermal cut-out? H'mmm. I had been imagining a voltage sensing circuit controlling trigger pulses to a triac, or a couple of SCR's, or something like that. Perhaps that's what it is. But maybe I will make one for myself after all, Bill.

The problem with X-ray units and such like is that they draw very little current in standby, but a lot during an exposure. As a result you cannot correct for voltage drop under load, because by the time your stabiliser kicks in, it is too late.
The problem is overcome by predicting the voltage drop that will occur, but this assumes that you know the mains resistance. Calibrating an x-ray unit is usually done automatically during the setting up of the unit, which makes a number of exposures, and then calculates what the settings have to be to give the operator the values that have been selected. Any change in mains resistance will mean that you have to go through the setting up procedure again.
Using something like a larger version of the VPower unit shown will change the mains resistance every time an exposure is made, which would give some very interesting results. You might do better to use an old fruit machine to calculate the exposure factors!

Can't help noticing that the website linked to is now down ... and the .pdf link now longer works.

Another (yet another) Big Idea that didn't take off, might we say?