It heats. It powers. Is it the future of home energy?

[jpak]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1114/p01s02-usec.html

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.

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[rkc3]

1. Coooooool!!!

[havocmom]

2. .

[hunter]

3. Honda makes some good little engines... but...

...I'm curious how long these things will last before they need to be rebuilt, especially if they become very common and used by people indifferent to proper maintenance. There are serious air pollution issues with any internal combustion engine, especially poorly maintained engines. Would we have to institute some sort of smog check program like we have for cars? Would a Stirling engine be better? Would the overall efficiency of a heat pump be better?

And they are expensive.

Furthermore, a well insulated house with a solar water heater doesn't need an expensive furnace of any kind. The equipment cost of a small supplemental direct vent gas heater and a gas water heater for a solar house is about $1,000.

[JohnWxy]

4. very interresting. Recommended!

[tomreedtoon]

5. Reliability and gas supply problems?

The reliability is a very important issue. How about some tests-to-destruction to find any potential weak problems?

Also, while this might be good for those communities with natural gas piped right into their homes, the people who only have electricity (like 90 percent of my city, Orlando) can't use this.