Earth Equity News

Green Inc.: A Winter's Tale: My First Season With Micro-Combined Heat and Power. By Kevin Ferguson, NYTimes, April 29, 2009. "Though far more common in Japan and Europe, micro-combined heat and power (MCHP) systems are gaining a small share of the residential market in the Northeast... Boston's home heating season came to an abrupt close in April and with it my [MCHP] experiment... The idea behind this and other so-called co-generation systems is to minimize wasted energy by generating two forms of it -- electricity and heat -- from a single source. My system -- called the freewatt -- burns natural gas to create 1.2 kilowatts of electricity from an electrical generator. The heat from that combustion also warms the water in my home's cast iron radiators and, incidentally, the hot water heater... There are downsides. MCHP isn't exactly cheap. The cost for my system, including installation, came to $24,880. Rebates from the local utility and other incentives brought my out-of-pocket expense down to about $20,000, but even so, any payback in terms of annual savings on my utility bills will take several years to realize. Another caveat to the system: it only produces electricity when it is also producing heat. In the warmer months, or any time heat is not needed, electric power must be drawn from the grid... [However,] my MCHP experiment seems well worth the expense."