In message ,
Sue Begg wrote:

In message , Mike
writes

"Steve Firth" wrote in message
. ..
Mike wrote:

Visited the Homebuilding and Renovation show at NEC and saw for the
first
time a MicroCHP which really looked the dog's doodahs. It was on the
PowerGen stand but of course nobody had any details on how to buy one.

Does anybody know the commercial situation with these ? When will they
be
available and for how much ?

Thanks and I will do. Hopefully costs will drop but the key advantage I can
see is we have so many short power-cuts that if the heating keeps itself,
the lights and computer on during these then it's a big gain. However I
will need an LPG one which presumably is some way off.


We have been thinking about geothermal underfloor heating and possibly
using a domestic windmill to power the pumping. Reading this thread has
given me something to think about. Does anyone know if the small
windmills have a cut off if the winds are strong? Because here in the
NE Scotland our winds are usually strong and it would seem silly to
install a system that is not going to work when it is cold and windy and
the heating is really needed.

I once downloaded some brochures from Cholwell Energy Systems (whose
website now seems to be offline). They sold several generating solutions
including windmills. Their larger models had some kind of automatic
feathering on the blades which enabled them to produce full rated output
up to 150mph windspeed (no mention of what happened over that). The
small model, the "AIR 403", had "aeroelastic carbon fibre blades" which
bent (or twisted I suppose) in the wind having a similar effect to
feathering but without all of the mechanics.

I still have the PDFs if anyone's interested.

Hwyl!

M.

--
Martin Angove: http://www.tridwr.demon.co.uk/
Two free issues: http://www.livtech.co.uk/ Living With Technology
.... File not found. Should I fake it? (Y/N)