"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
news
In article ,
writes:
On Fri, 5 May 2017 13:06:30 -0700 (PDT), wrote:


If the OP hits 21%, which is doable, the electricity will cost the same
14p a unit in gas, but you'll get the extra heat free. It's done on
larger scale, but a lot of mucking about for not a lot on a domestic
scale.

Does no one remember the calor totem from the 80s. It supplied the
electricity needs of three households but the achilles heel was engine
life was only about a year, 1100cc FIAT I think.

Cars (of that type) are only designed for 3000 hours use.

BULL****.

That gets you to roughly 100,000 miles at an average 30MPH.

I'm not sure why the various Stirling units failed, they were about
1kW(e) and 9kW(t), British gas were going to install 3000 in
Manchester but pulled out, the NZ company that made them still exists.
They were supposed to offer the life of a freezer and the utility of a
gas boiler all for around six times the cost of a traditional boiler.

The development was funded by the likes of Eon, British Gas, etc.
The products vanished when the development funding ceased.
I think this was probably down to them never being economic to
sell without hefty subsidies, due to inefficient energy production
in small units for domestic use.

I've actually run a 1kW(e) Honda generator in the evenings for two
years with no issues until it got stolen from the caravan, so engine
life need not be a problem but matching size to demand is.

In the 90s installed a 10kW(e) Petter genset based chp at a remote
classroom and the electricity cost about the same as the diesel used
plus the operation and maintenance costs so not worthwhile if grid
connected, just under 20% efficient because it was sized for peak
loads and ran at 10% most of the time which was inefficient.

My old boss now installs wood pellet chp which back feed the grid,
they have one that's been online for 2 years, but that all hinges on a
generous feed in tariff.

Conversely the National Trust have finally gone overboard for wood
energy and in qualifying for RHI have removed a number of oversized
chip boilers and replaced by new, these are for heat only, at one
property where a micro hydro electric scheme has been replaced rather
than backfeed the grid they have opted to use excess electricity to
power immersion elements in the thermal store.

I installed Aircon at home 12 years ago. It was for cooling my main
living area when working at home, but I actually use it in reverse
to heat the area in winter when working at home, rather than heating
the whole house. For first few years, I had it on a power meter, and
using it as an air-sourced heat pump cost very little to heat the
room all winter, vastly less than heating the whole house all day
with gas central heating just because I'm working in one room.
It only gets used for cooling a few days a year, but for heating,
probably 50 days a year.