Re: Condensing boilers & microbore pipe

["Simon Rafferty" <simonr@xxxxxxx>]

Micro CHP is a very nice and noble idea, but it does have a serious flaw,
what are you going to do with the electricity that you produce? You cant
sell it back to the grid and these units dont provide enough power to power
an entire house. I guess you could fill your garage with batteries and
store the power, but this is both costly and requires a lot of space.
I have worked for an Enrgy Mangement consultancy for 5 years now and I am
watching commercial CHP ventures fail left right and centre. Even on a 1MW
plant the owners cannot sell back into the grid under the new pricing
tarriffs (and that is in areas where the grid is overloaded and needs
reinforcing). We have actually got to the point now where, even on large
commercial scale operations we cannot recommend CHP.

Much of the technology that we are seeing come into the market has been
developed in Scandanavian countries where there Heat and Power usage is
very different to that in the UK.

Things that I believe will benefit domestic heating systems much more in
the UK is external thermoststs on heating systems combined with Building
Energy Management Systems (such as TREND) so that buildings are heated more
efficiently.

Even on a domestic boiler, by using a simple BEMS that reduces boiler
cycling you can make savings of 10 - 15pct quite easily.

Simon
----- Original Message -----
From: James Derrick
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, November 29, 2003 11:18 AM
Subject: Re: [ukha_d] Condensing boilers & microbore pipe


On Fri, 28 Nov 2003 15:52:17 -0000, you wrote:

><snip>
>How many houses in the UK currently have micro CHP intalled......
>exactly 0.
></snip>

Oddly enough, the real answer appears to be several hundred. The BBC
did a Radio 4 programme on micro CHP plants being trialled in a couple
of areas of the UK funded by electricity generators. Can't remember
the companies involved, sorry (Powergen?).

I intestigated this a bit, as I have a narrowboat and the company
mentioned also do a silent genset for boats.
http://www.whispergen.com/resident.html

The technology is rather neat- it's a Stirling engine. Their WWW has
possibly the best use of flash animations I've seen to explain how
these work.

http://www.whispergen.com/whispgn.html
http://www.whispergen.com/stirling.html

I'm not about to give up a chunk of my garage for a CHP plant
tomorrow, but in a few years time, who knows.

They are working on a new donestic genset as the current one needs a
mains supply to generate electricity (which is a bit poor as it stops
a gas powered UPS, or a LPG tank supplying remote houses).



James
--
James Derrick
james@xxxxxxx, Cramlington, England
Beyond the Horizon of the place we lived when we were young,
In a World of Magnets and Miracles. Pink Floyd.