A home alternative energy installation is often not worth the
investment. But a possible formula may be

. A diesel fueled electrical generator to run a whole house heat pump
- cools the house in summer and helps to heat it in winter. The
generator part recharges your battery. Maybe divert the radiator
coolant to supplement house heating. Of course there is no such thing
as free energy but the battery charging and waste heat recovery may
work out to be less than the bills you pay the utility company. The
only "free" heat comes from the heat pump set up.

I had considered a diesel genset some time back. I know in one Scandinavian
country, a lot of homes use the exact system you described above. I was
still under the impression that the cost of fueling the generator was still
higher than the cost of utility-provided electricity. However, I hadn't
thought of the heat pump angle on this. If the engine drives a compressor,
which heats the house in winter and cools it in summer, that eliminates a
lot of summer load. The coolant can probably heat a house twice our size
(3000 sq ft) if we're talking about a 40kW generator/Detroit diesel, 82HP or
so--diesels put out an awful lot of heat.
If it can run on No 2 fuel, it can share our 2000-gallon tank as a source,
but then the question is how many gallons per hour will such a genset use
(average load less than 4kW, with peaks reaching 3/4 capacity at certain
times). Since a generator runs continuously, I can see a lot of oil being
consumed in a short time, versus the furnace and hot water heaters which use
a certain amount, but only run for very brief duty cycles.

It might be possible that we're talking about intermittent generator
operation, such as to charge batteries, or when the thermostat calls for
heat (using the engine coolant to heat the baseboard radiators.) But either
way, I don't get the impression that the efficiency will compete with even
the high-priced utility power.

I am not that convinced about solar cells. Grime often reduces their
efficiency and therefore output.

Yes, that's a big factor, and even bigger is the situation of our house in a
forest, so we only get good sun in winter, but nearly none in summer.


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Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

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