It pays

DanHolohan

to wander off the Wall.

Mike T., Swampeast MO

CHP

Have been enjoying your blog greatly!

Do have to disagree with one statement you made regarding utility and power buybacks.

Yes, many think that utilities want to buy back your excess electricity. It depends on where you live...

Missouri and some neighboring states in the mid-Mississippi valley are the holdouts. The utilities UTTERLY fight legislation requiring buybacks. Why? They've invested a LOT of money to be able to meet peak summer demand and they can also buy cheap, subsidized power from the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Even with our dirt-cheap winter electric rates and current very high natural gas, it's still less expensive to use gas to heat if you're using a reasonably efficient appliance. There's a big glut of electricity around here during the winter and should we install CHPs to meet a decent summer demand, it would only add to the problem unless we switched to electric heating.

The public University adjacent to my house has their own electric generation station. Even they can't sell back to the "public" utility!

In the Northeast where I believe that A/C has only recently become the norm, I'd be willing to bet that you'll be faced with the same situation soon. The utilities are going to invest billions before alternatives even get a chance to make a dent.

I don't particularly care for government intrusion, but even though utilities are now mainly "deregulated" they're still a PUBLIC matter where you have little or no choice from whom you purchase.

The Stirling engine isn't the only unusual technology that's been around for many decades. The status quo will crush any true alternative until we've sucked every bit of fossil fuel out and nearly de-forested this planet.

DanHolohan

I think

what we're going to see when they finally arrive in bulk is a unit that will produce about 80% of the typical electrical needs (while it's making heat) and priced at about $5,000 to the homeowner. I think that's going to make it look pretty delicious.

Good points, Mike. Thanks for wandering. ;-)

rb_6

CHP

Halifax, N.S.…Heres what's happening - Oil Prices Go Up…Housing Efficiency Goes UP…loads become too small for smallest oil nozzle … gas has big hurdle - several years of changing consumers habits … leaves electrical utilities rubbing their hands together...answer = lots of efficient homes tied into a very efficient oil or gas fired CHP plant.

Small, medium or large...depends on the loads of the developments.