[SustainableTompkins] [article] It heats. It powers. Is it the future of home energy?

Thu Nov 16 15:27:06 PST 2006

cogen at the residential scale....

 (http://www.csmonitor.com/) 

    from the November 14, 2006 edition -  
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1114/p01s02-usec.html  
It heats. It powers. Is it the future of home  energy? 
Residential 'micro-combined-heat-and-power' units are  efficient furnaces 
that create electricity.  
By _Mark  Clayton_ 
(http://www.csmonitor.com/cgi-bin/encryptmail.pl?ID=CDE1F2EBA0C3ECE1F9F4EFEE)  | Staff writer of The Christian Science  Monitor  
Down  in Bernard Malin's basement is a softly thrumming metal box that  turns 
natural gas into hot water and generates $600 to $800 worth of  electricity a 
year - a bonus byproduct of heating his home.  
"It's like printing money," says Mr. Malin, the first person in  
Massachusetts - perhaps in the nation - to own a residential "micro  
combined-heat-and-power" system, also known as micro-CHP. 
But he's not likely to be the last. 
Since Malin changed his home heating system to micro-CHP in  February, 18 
other families in the Boston area also have adopted the  technology, which 
squeezes about 90 percent of the useful energy  from the fuel. That's triple the 
efficiency of power delivered over  the grid. 
Factories and other industrial facilities have used large CHP  systems for 
years. But until the US debut of micro-systems in  greater Boston, the units had 
not been small enough, cheap enough,  and quiet enough for American homes. 
Add to that the public's rising  concern about electric-power reliability - seen 
in a sales boom of  backup generators in the past couple of years - and some 
experts see  in micro-CHP a power-to-the-people energy revolution. 
"Right now these residential micro-CHP systems are just a blip,"  says 
Nicholas Lenssen of Energy Insights, a technology advisory firm  in Framingham, 
Mass. "But it's a ... technology that ... could have  a big impact as it's adopted 
more widely over the next five to 10  years."The Japanese are early adopters  
Home heating systems that produce a kilowatt of electricity -  like Malin's - 
and bigger units that pump out about 4 kilowatts are  already available in 
Europe and Japan. They'll make their commercial  US debut in New England in 
January. 
Of course, other home-based power-supply options - solar panels  and wind 
generators - have preceded micro-CHP, with varying degrees  of acceptance. Both 
can be costly and hard to site. Fuel cells are  another much-anticipated 
option, but remain too costly for  commercialization. Micro-CHP, by contrast, is an 
advanced hybrid of  existing technologies: an internal-combustion engine 
generator  married to a high-efficiency home furnace. 
In Japan, more than 30,000 homeowners have installed micro-CHP  systems 
driven by quiet, efficient internal-combustion engines, each  housed in a sleek 
metal box made by Honda. Japan is ahead because  gas utilities have been 
subsidizing and promoting the systems. In  Britain, where the systems look like 
dishwashers and sit under  kitchen counters, 80,000 systems made by a New Zealand 
company are  on order. 
At least five companies are building micro-CHP systems worldwide.  Two are 
trying to enter the US market: Marathon Engine Systems of  East Troy, Wis., 
plans to bring a 4-kilowatt hot-water system it  sells in Europe to the US early 
in 2007. Climate Energy of Medfield,  Mass., has developed a forced-hot-air 
system that marries a  high-efficiency furnace to a superquiet Honda generator. 
That system  has been deployed as a pilot to several US homes, including  
Malin's. 
Such systems help people like Lynn Denoy insulate themselves from  high 
electricity prices because they draw power from the commercial  grid much less 
often in winter. 
"I feel good about money we're saving - and the environment -  because we're 
using less gas [than the old furnace] and creating our  own heat and 
electricity," says the speech therapist from Braintree,  Mass. Ms. Denoy's family will 
buy some power this winter - and all  spring and summer when the furnace 
system is not running. 
Still, micro-CHP makes some utilities nervous, experts say. "In  North 
America I don't see utilities embracing it. I think they'll  see it as more of a 
threat initially," says Jon Slowe, a director at  Delta Energy & Environment, an 
energy consulting company in  Glasgow, Scotland. 
At the municipal utility in Braintree, Mass., where Malin and  Denoy live, 
officials say micro-CHP could bolster the grid in their  area with extra power, 
if the idea catches on. "If 1,000 homeowners  bought these in Braintree, that 
would be great - about 10 percent of  our residential load," says William 
Bottiggi, director of the  Braintree Electric Light Department, which partnered 
with the  American Public Power Association to subsidize some local  
installations. 
But William Steeley of Distributed Energy Resources at the  Electric Power 
Research Institute, whose members include  investor-owned utilities, says the 
jury's out. "We are very  intrigued by micro-CHP and its potential," he says. 
"It is competing  against well-established technologies. So we'll have to see." 
Wind-powered turbines in back yards, solar panels on rooftops,  and micro-CHP 
are part of a gradual shift by homeowners from central  power plants and 
toward self-generated power. 
Slowly gaining ground, the trend is "not at all pie in the sky,"  says Cheryl 
Harrington of the Regulatory Assistance Project, a  nonprofit that helps 
states and nations develop energy policy. "The  question is how to get electric 
utilities to actively support this  kind of generation when it is on the 
customer's side of the  meter."And the price tag is...?  
Micro-CHP doesn't come cheap - just with a long-term discount.  Basic systems 
cost from $13,000 to $20,000, installed. Even at the  lower range, that's at 
least $6,000 more than a new high-efficiency  hot-air furnace, even after a 
gas company rebate. Result: The  payback period on the initial investment is 
three to seven years,  depending on the cost of electricity, say officials at 
Climate  Energy. The company expects to install about 200 systems next year,  
mostly in New England. 
Given consumers' interest in having a backup power generator on  site, 
micro-CHP systems that provide that, as well as cut electric  bills, may hold the 
most promise, say analysts. 
Climate Energy won't have a model with backup capability until  2008, but is 
poised to sell its "Freewatt" system that chops  electric bills by about 50 
percent. Marathon, which makes larger  home systems, will offer backup 
capability when its systems roll out  early next year. 
While all CHP systems use fossil fuel, some states and  environmental groups 
have endorsed them as a step in the right  direction. Through efficiency 
gains, a Climate Energy system cuts  carbon-dioxide emissions for electricity used 
in the home by 40  percent, company officials say. 
If micro-CHP can capture even 1 percent of the 3 million home  furnaces sold 
each year, that would be enough to make it more  broadly affordable, says Eric 
Guyer, CEO of Climate Energy. "I think  there will be a mind shift over 
time." 
For Richard Hillel of Belmont, Mass., that shift is here. "When  you can have 
something producing heat and electricity, too, it's  great," he says. "We 
should be doing anything we can to save  energy." 
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----------------------------------------------------
Gay  Nicholson, Ph.D. 

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607-279-6618  (cell)

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Sustainable Tompkins 
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