Health Nuts and Bolts

Cited: Environmental News Network

Did you ever imagine and efficient gas furnace providing energy to your home while it is heating it?  Well, the North American market today is in for a new reality from Marathon engine.  Generating electricity produces enormous amounts of heat that is typically wasted when it goes right at the chimney.  Now there is cogeneration or “Combined Heat and Power” systems that make use of that otherwise wasted heat to warm buildings and homes.  Several Con-Edison plants in the vicinity of Manhattan help to heat Manhattan’s buildings.  It’s brilliant solution will help urban areas to improve energy efficiency.  Although, it does not work as good in less urban areas.  Typically, there are still people who use their own natural gas to heat their homes.

But what if you could reverse the cogeneration idea? Imagine taking an already efficient gas furnace and generating a home’s electricity directly from it, while it heats?

That is the reality that Marathon Engine has in store for the North American market today. While not quite a start-up (they have been selling units in Europe for 5 years), the company’s “EcoPower MicroCHP” units look set to sell well, despite, or perhaps because of the economy downturn.

The EcoPower unit is not only capable of generating all of a sizable home’s heating and electric needs – it can also sell excess generation back to a utility (assuming Net Metering is legal and in place). The larger the home, the better the payback which makes the system particularly suited for multi-family buildings and small businesses with strong heating needs. It is also best used in cold climates where heat is required for most months of the year – you will not find much use for it in Phoenix.

As for greenhouse gases, the company claims (see PDF here) to offer a 65% reduction in CO2 emissions vs a coal powered equivalent. In reality, it is very difficult to measure the reduction because there are so many factors that might go in to what the device replaces and what kind of heating and electric demand is called for.

On the other side of the coin, EcoPower is not cheap.  The average person will not have $35,000 laying around to purchase.  However, for larger homes, the device could possibly pay for itself in about a half a dozen years or so.  If it works, despite the cost, with a high energy prices, economics of scale will probably bring the equal power within reach for many people.  Housing developers, of course, could very possibly start incorporating EcoPower into their building plans of houses and then the cost would be easier for people to afford because it would be spread out over the life of the mortgage.

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My Take: This is fantastic!  However, it is not a new idea.  People in cold country have been doing something similar to this for years.  I know several people that take their dryer exhaust from their dryers and aim it into their heating vent system to save money on heating during winter.  It works expiration point

The idea to take that extra heat and create energy makes the same idea even better.  Those people that do this could easily use that same heat to run their dryer.  Therefore, it is a fantastic idea!  It is even better that it cuts down on the CO2 emissions in the air, we get enough of that from the cars and trucks on the road.

Now if they could just manage to use the heat in the summer in Phoenix to do the same thing they are doing with this equipment, they would really have something then.  This year it has been running right at 115° the day for almost a month.  That means you could fry eggs on the sidewalk.  Why can’t someone create something to capture that he and create clean energy?

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