Micro Combined Heat and Power

[ABMax24]

With the cold weather I've been stuck inside, thinking of energy and the way we heat our homes and the incredible demands placed on our electrical grid powering all the furnaces and heaters. There's been a few test homes built in the province now with mCHP that are hoping to help tackle the electrical loads on the grid, while heating and powering the home more efficiently. They are using small Aisin Coremo 1.5kw units to generate electricity while also heating hot water with the waste heat to heat the home and domestic hot water systems. They seem to pair well in our climate with Solar PV, providing more uniform year round power generation, especially considering we don't get the benefits of net-metering here.

These are 2013 specs, but basically the Coremo is powered by a small single cylinder 4-stroke engine operating at up to 1800rpm.

https://arpa-e.energy.gov/sites/default/files/Sekihisa_Aisin.pdf

Information on ATCO's trial program in Alberta.

ATCO Gas | Energy Efficient Homes & Buildings

Energy efficient homes have many benefits such as using less energy so it costs less to operate and producing fewer greenhouse gasses which is good for the environment.

gas.atco.com

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5c13eb6896d455789a8b64f9/t/5c6a20b16e9a7f0b4e384adb/1550459066680/180517_Energy+Efficiency+and+Emissions+Reduction+via+mCHP_Evans%2C+Andrew.pdf

https://gas.atco.com/content/dam/web/atco-gas/our-energy-future/mchp-info-sheet.pdf

 

[vbu]

Interesting. In Europe a lot of commercial greenhouses are heated this way, and they sell the generated power back to the utility company. I doubt this will ever take off on a residential scale though, as there's a running engine involved, which means it would need regular maintenance.

 

[peakbagger]

There was at least two attempts in England, one with Honda recip engine and one with Sterling Engine. Dean Kamen the inventor claims to have had a ready to produce sterling design for at least 15 years that he claims heats and generates power for his mansion. I have been involved with six combined heat and power plants in the last seven years for hospitals and manufacturing plants. About 22 MWs total. They scale well to place that needs lots of heating or cooling year round. They get expensive as the size goes down.