Posted on 11/14/2006 12:32:02 PM PST by shrinkermd
My gas & electric are provided by the same company. It offers a natural gas operated back up generator. I think it costs several hundred dollars per year, whether it is ever used or not. I've considered it, but am not sure I can justify it. When the electricity goes out, I lose heat, lights *and* water.
Sounds like a fine idea. Now, if would get NG to the site.
Prius?
Buy your own for $3-$5K.
However, this scenario all depends on whether you live in a free area of the country or you live in a fascist controlled area with unrealistic zoning governed by fatcat politicians who will never want for anything........
FMCDH(BITS)
I'm not going to live in this house long enough to justify $3-$5K.
OK, that explains things. The house I live in doesn't have automatic anything, it was built in the twenties. We have to shut anything off manually if a line broke.
The way I'm reading the literature on this, it sounds to me like it will be burning gas for fuel pretty much 24-7 during the heating season with electricity as a byproduct. During the cooling season, it does not sound as if it's going to do anything, so I guess it's usefulness is dependent on which region you live in. If so, it will not take off in the milder regions and definitely not in the deep South.
In most of the US, peak electrical demand is during the summer months, not the winter. And payback period is very dependent on the price of natural gas which as we have seen in the last decade or so can be very volatile. Perhaps it can run of fuel oil as well, but the few links I looked at indicated gas.
I've got vent-free fireplace logs. They look okay, and at least I have heat if I lose electrical service.
I've stabilized a wormhole in my backyard. Using the temperature difference between this universe and the other one it's connected to, I'm generating tons of electricity.
I'm afraid to sell it back to the power company, though.
You evil conservative! You're going to slowly destroy that other universe! Their women and children will bear the brunt of your insensitivity! Brute!
Electric utilities have been doing that for decades --- they are called Combined Heat & Power Plants and are in most downtown areas of large cities in the East and upper Midwest and are in virtually every city in Europe. There are also co-generation and combined cycle plants that do on a very large scale (500 + MW) what this unit does. They are basically one or more large gas turbine-generators with all the exhaust heat delivered to a heat recovery steam generator which either sends steam to heat buildings and homes or feed some industrial process or the steam can be run through a steam turbine-generator to produce even more electricity.
I don't buy the 89% efficiency thing for this gadget. Even the latest generation of technology in the utility sector only delivers a little over 60% efficiency when measured by BTU input vs. useful energy delivered. Perhaps they are measuring combustion efficiency, but that is deceptive. Heat generated that only goes up the chimney is of no value to anyone.
What are they & where can I get some?
That was a great Isaac Asimov story.
A simple natural gas generator is is net loser. Its cost of producing electricity will always be higher than the utilities.
So its only value, as another poster pointed out, is that it is free electricity while you are heating you house. So then the question is how much electricity is going to be generated for the $6-$8,000 investment (net cost after a boiler is deducted).
I burn less than 1000 gallons of propane a year so lets say the generator/heater burns 3 gallons an hour (that is probably very efficient) and produces 1.5 KW per hour. So it would produce 500 KW per year or $50.00 worth of electricity (at $.10 a KW).
That is roughly .0083 percent return on the investment, not counting depreciation, etc. I might actually do better putting the money under my mattress (to help keep me warm).
I was thinkin' of getting the mini-black hole from Ikea, but the possibility of spaghettification has me a bit worried! I'm already 6'3"! Don't wanna be 6 billion 3"!
My earlier response was kind of a threadjack. I'd consider the $3-$5k money well spent, if it was needed to prevent the pipes in my house from freezing & busting. Personal comfort & boredom, cuz none of my toys work make a generator attractive, not a necessity & yes, it would be a net "loser".
One of my sons lived in a house where they kept the temp no higher than 55 degrees all winter. They weren't gonna turn the heat on at all, 'til I pointed out the issue with the plumbing.
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