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Lochinvar, EC POWER Launch Cogeneration in North American Markets

HeatingHelp
HeatingHelp Administrator Posts: 679
edited November 2020 in THE MAIN WALL
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Lochinvar, EC POWER Launch Cogeneration in North American Markets

Lochinvar, an industry-leader in high-efficiency boiler and water heater manufacturing, and EC POWER, the top European producer of residential and commercial combined heat and power products, today announced the launch of XRGI25, one of the most cutting-edge cogeneration products to ever be released in North America.

Read the full story here

Comments

  • DavidMarasow
    DavidMarasow Member Posts: 16
    anyone put one of these in? what does a unit cost? any reviews?
  • motoguy128
    motoguy128 Member Posts: 393
    Would be interesting to team up with an electrical contractor for these. Not sure what happens in the summer. Guess you just dump the heat then.

    Interesting enough, most homes only need an average of 1000 Watts or less. So with storage or a favorable utility agreement it could work well.

    IN summer probably would be most economical to let the utility bring it on during peak hours or with your AC system.

    My rough number say most homes at peak need 4-5x the heating KW as electrical demand. So a IC engine would fall in line with 4-5x waste heat for every unit of electricity.

    SO do you throttle the electrical output to match heating demand, or match electrical demand and dump the waste heat you don’t need?
  • motoguy128
    motoguy128 Member Posts: 393
    The kicker is you’d still need a boiler to back it up. Seems like a better application for a smaller hotel with a restaurant in a northern climate. Area with very high electric rates. 3KW is a big home for winter base load. Only see this being practical on a large luxury home or light commercial and really then just as a “cool to have” feature that might pay for itself.
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 24,839
    I expect that for some situations one of these would make a lot of sense. I'd certainly look at it if were somewhat applicable to any of the applications which I have. Which it isn't: strike one, no diesel option. Oh well...
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • hot_rod
    hot_rod Member Posts: 23,375
    Thermally Led, is the key phrase for cogen.
    Dairy barns, hog barns, this type of facility is where it can pencil out. You need a fairly consistent thermal load.
    Here is a webinar we did in June with the Lochinvar folks.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRB4KY7mIU8&list=PLuuV0ELkYb5VE0I4evUZ30b5U78CRlRdg&index=19
    Bob "hot rod" Rohr
    trainer for Caleffi NA
    Living the hydronic dream
  • retiredguy
    retiredguy Member Posts: 976
    edited November 2020
    I am from the "old school" and have seen this story play out before in the commercial setting. I have to say that I have no working experience with anything "co gen" so my comments are strictly from an observation point. The systems I saw were from many years ago and these systems worked great until they didn't. A few of our customers bought them and sang praises and wrote sonnets to the great investment that they just made. Years later, the system was sitting in the trash pile behind the school. I was told that the maintenance costs were excessive. Now, if these systems are much more refined than those of yesterday and come with an "iron clad warranty", great, give them a try. My 2 cents
  • Erin Holohan Haskell
    Erin Holohan Haskell Member, Moderator, Administrator Posts: 2,354
    This is a case study from a college in Upstate New York.

    President
    HeatingHelp.com

  • mrericmorrow
    mrericmorrow Member Posts: 2
    Hello Forum. I am the North America technical guru for the Lochinvar Micro CHP. I will try my best to reach each of you to answer your questions. I will also place the answers here on my next post. If you want to be a case study location reach out to me.

    Eric Morrow
    Lochinvar
    615-318-4919
  • mrericmorrow
    mrericmorrow Member Posts: 2
    Motoguy128 - This is for Commercial or Industrial only. No residential as it is 480 v 3 phase

    Ideal applications are Hotels, Convention Centers, Hospitals, College, Assisted Living, Apartment Buildings with 50 Plus Units and centralized Domestic Water Heating, Agriculture, etc.

    Domestic Water Heating is 24/7 365 days a year. If Domestic is not calling you can store the Hot Water and use during high demands or by using a few control valves you can divert the hot water to other needs such as snow melt, HW reheat, Absorb Chiller, etc

    This same unit is installed in 27 other countries with over 10,000 installs. We are just now bringing this technology to North America and looking for Case Study opportunities. If you or someone you know is interested please contact us.

    Eric Morrow
    Lochinvar
    615-318-4919

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