Posted on 11/14/2006 12:32:02 PM PST by shrinkermd
Down in Bernard Malin's basement is a softly thrumming metal box that turns natural gas into hot water and generates $600 to $800 worth of electricity a year - a bonus byproduct of heating his home. "It's like printing money," says Mr. Malin, the first person in Massachusetts - perhaps in the nation - to own a residential "micro combined-heat-and-power" system, also known as micro-CHP.
But he's not likely to be the last.
Since Malin changed his home heating system to micro-CHP in February, 18 other families in the Boston area also have adopted the technology, which squeezes about 90 percent of the useful energy from the fuel. That's triple the efficiency of power delivered over the grid.
Factories and other industrial facilities have used large CHP systems for years. But until the US debut of micro-systems in greater Boston, the units had not been small enough, cheap enough, and quiet enough for American homes. Add to that the public's rising concern about electric-power reliability - seen in a sales boom of backup generators in the past couple of years - and some experts see in micro-CHP a power-to-the-people energy revolution....
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Given consumers' interest in having a backup power generator on site, micro-CHP systems that provide that, as well as cut electric bills, may hold the most promise, say analysts.
The company expects to install about 200 systems next year, mostly in New England.
sure, i bet. wonder how many people will spend 13 thousand dollars plus fuel for those internal combustion engines, to save one percentage point efficiency.
i'm skeptical - my furnace gets 89% now.
I wonder if it will run on propane - I'm about $15,000 from the nearest natural gas line.
Yes, but does it make your electric meter run backwards?
Yes, it would make your electric meter run backwards, but your gas meter would run forward - rapidly. www.climate-energy.com
Power Generation Module
The power generation module, produced by the Honda Motor Company, is called the MCHP unit. This unit is an incredibly quiet (only 46 dBA at 1 meter) and long life small engine-generator that has already been installed in over 30,000 homes in Japan. The internal combustion engine runs on clean natural gas and can be located in a basement or utility room. This engine produces 1,200 watts of electric power and about 11,000 Btu's per hour of heat for the home.
Before the power from any generator is connected to the grid the electric power quality must meet certain standards. The MCHP uses advanced Honda solid-state inverter technology to automatically insure that the output power supplied to the home and to the electric grid is noise free, is the proper voltage and is synchronized with the AC power of the grid. In the event of a power failure the inverter immediately detects this upset condition and stops delivering power to the grid. This safety feature protects the grid equipment and service personnel.
Space Heating Module
The Climate Energy Warm Air Micro-CHP System integrates a custom state of the art high efficiency furnace produced by ECR International, Inc. with the Honda MCHP unit. The furnace is sized to meet the total heating load and provides the heat distribution to the home.
Cogeneration Heat Exchanger Module
The heat produced by the MCHP engine's cooling, lubrication and exhaust systems is captured and is transferred to a coolant loop that supplies heat to the furnace through the cogeneration heat exchanger module.
Unlikely. These kind of units are "all one piece". The only thing coming in are the fuel and cold water line, and the only things going out are the power leads and hot water line. I suspect they have safety shutdowns for loss of water flow, and loss of fuel flow would cause a shutdown anyway.
No worse than would happen with any other natural-gas heated house with normal water heater hookup.
lots of things can make your electric meter run backwards, not many are cheaper tho, if any.
every time energy prices spike, these 'miracle' products come out of the woodwork. if they really were any good, they would already be out there in significant numbers, and everybody would be on wiating lists to buy them.
if it sounds too good to be true, it usually IS.
You don't have to pay for natural gas. The heat is free. You could run a generator off it, if set up correctly.
It's just not cheap, at all.
I knew a guy that had a waterwheel on his farm and 3 months out of the year he was paid for the excess power he generated.
bump
Yeah, could be useful out in the country. It sure is nice to have power and heat if the grid electricity goes out during the winter.
Besides Honda
Check out
http://www.chpa.co.uk/directory.htm for EU use, quite a few vendors, I guess because utilites are so expensive.
For more in North America
http://www.northeastchp.org/nac/businesses/pubs.htm
Fun technology to look at and pretty efficent - but I just put a 7K furnance/heat exchanger water heater in, so these won't be in my near future....but I did cut by natural gas bill by 58%.
Ping to read later.
Yes, it's 89% efficient at turning a high-value fuel into high-entropy heat energy. I think the idea here is that you can generate electricity from the fuel with high efficiencies at home, since what would normally be waste energy, typically in the form of hot exhaust gases and the heat given off by the engine, instead goes back into heating the house, which needs to be done anyway. The article seems to be saying that doing this is more efficient than using the same natural gas to generate power at a station some distance away and then transmit it to your house. Of course, there are other, much cheaper, less valuable fuels that can be used in industrial power generation, such as coal or heavy oil, that aren't very usable at home. Interesting, though. Maybe this could improve overall energy efficiency in our society, and reduce some of the demand for more centralized power generation and distribution lines, which are extremely capital intensive, and which have long lead times for construction.
"Caveat Emptor is the slogan we live by..."
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