Tis indeed a crazy thread run somewhat amuk. Still, appreciate the diversity of opinions, careers, and knowledge. Thanks all for contributing.
I think it can put out it's rated power output at a lower heat output, but I'm not sure. Their gas unit is producing 1 kw electrical and 6kw thermal, which seems good.Looks kinda niche, since the heat output is 20X higher than the electrical output (ofc, its CHP). But applications like space heating that need that much heat (20 kW, 75,000 kBTU/h continuous) might want more than 1 kW max.
These Stirling engines pop-up a lot bc if their stated thermodynamic efficiency and long lifetime (one moving part and no wear surfaces). One company was proposing one for the Space Station that would work on concentrated solar radiation. The same company tried to use the design for an array of CSP collectors in the desert, and ended up bankrupt. The main issue seems to be startup/shutdown, poor throttlability, and accommodating variable temp heat sources and sinks for stable operation.
I don't know if this is the company you are talking about, but they seem to have had success with remote power for NG pipelines.
Remote Power Home - Qnergy
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This is probably discussed somewhere else, but what would your choice for batteries be?In a cabin, I would have a battery bank, a solar panel, a nice since wave inverter with a kill switch (to not drain the battery when not in use) and a small genny for backup. Micro-hydro would be sweet if available, but I'd probably want to use it to feed a battery bank, for surge capacity... like my backwoods espresso machine. And a separate woodstove for heat. Not sure I would care about the integration complexity of a CHP system.
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