WhisperGen home power cogenerator/furnace -- anyone heard of it?

[htuttle]

I came across this really interesting new furnace/hot water heater/generator from New Zealand the other day, and I'm wondering if anyone has heard of it.

Whisper Tech
http://www.whispertech.co.nz/index.cfm

It uses a Stirling engine built around a natural gas boiler/hot water heater. The home AC unit seems to be rated at generating 1200 watts at 220V. May not be quite enough to power your whole house, but almost enough, and you get heat and hot water out of it, too.

It uses some interesting innovations on the Stirling design, most notably the 'wobble yoke' connecting 4 cylinders (ie., 2 hot, 2 cold, connected in pairs).

Here's a link to the AC home unit:
http://www.whispertech.co.nz/main/acwhispergen/

They say they have a contract with Powergen in the UK to install 550 of them in homes in East Manchester.
http://www.whispertech.co.nz/main/WTNews/

They have a portable DC unit for boats, RVs and remote locations as well.

While it uses natural gas, it would be able to run on any fuel gas, and like most burners could probably be adapted for other fuels. The most interesting part to me is that they seem to be squeezing almost every bit of work out of the fuel by heating/hot water and power generation all off the same flame burner.

They aren't cheap (I think about $11,000 NZ), but if it really could replace a heater/hot water heater AND generate power, that price doesn't seem so high. The brochures suggest that the average New Zealander could save about $400-$500 per year on electricity by using one of these to heat their home and hot water.

I don't think it's available in the US yet, and I don't know what sort of certification it would need to pass to be sold here, but they say they expect to make it available to the consumer market in the UK and NZ in 2005.

Anyone ever heard of it before?

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Never heard about before, but sure does sound interesting. Do

you think they will have a model available in the US?