Re: Condensing boilers & microbore pipe

["David Buckley" <db@xxxxxxx>]

Back in the Dark Ages a TV company did a program about
building "houses of the future" in Milton Keynes.  One of the
houses
featured a CHP plant, the Fiat TOTEM, the Total Energy Module.

As a yolung chap, I was intrigued by this concept, and did lots of
research on it...  Trouble was that the totem was just too big for a
UK domestic, unless you had a _big_ domestic and preferably a pool.

The bottom line of the Totem was that it was that it was about as
efficient as a gas boiler (of the day), and so you sized and bought
for heat output, and you got some electicity (about 15KW IIRC) for
free, which could be used to reduce your electicity bill.

I havent looked at the economics recently, and how much more
efficient modern boilers are than those for twenty years back, so
things may have changed radically, or they may have not.  Certainly
some of the web sites still advise buying for heat, and treating the
elctricity for free.

Of course, if you have a CHP strategy that relies on flogging
electicity to the grid, and then wondering what to do with the heat,
you could well come unstuck.

But small scale CHP doesnt have to be outrageously expensive; look
at http://www.polarpowerinc.com/products/generators/cogenset.htm
-
ok, its power comes out at 48VDC, but thats just an electrical
challenge...!

David.






--- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, "Simon Rafferty" <simonr@f...>
wrote:
> Well unfortunately with the new tarriffs and pricing structures it
is almost impossible now. Like I said we have 1 MW CHP that cannot
sell back into the grid. It is causing a lot of problems, because
whereas CHP plants that were insatlled 2 years ago were seriously
viable (they were selling back into the grid) now they are going
under. And you dont sell it back to the REC you sell it back to the
grid.
>
> Simon
>   ----- Original Message -----
>   From: mailinglists@v...
>   To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
>   Sent: Saturday, November 29, 2003 9:15 PM
>   Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Condensing boilers & microbore pipe
>
>
>   <snip>
>   What are you going to do with the electricity that you produce?
You cant
>   sell it back to the grid
>   </snip>
>
>   Errr, that's what the chap on 'Working Lunch' was doing... He
was flgging it
>   back to PowerGen, as when all the stuff in his house was turned
off, the
>   elecy meter ran backwards...
>
>
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