I would hope the following was written as a
tongue-in-cheek piece and not something to be aspired toward!
If by 2025 our boilers are still wasting the
quantity of heat that they are now It will need more than a Stirling engine to
put the problem right. And I find the phrase " for an estimated $500 the plant
will generate power for nothing" almost blasphomous -- nothing could
be further from the truth of this statement.. what they are in fact saying is
that this plant will regenerate an efficiency loss that shouldn't have happened
in the first place.
I've looked at stirlings and
run stirlings but they are still fuel powered plants that aren't much more
efficient that anything else we have at present and the whole piece is I think a
piece of collumn fill for a paper.
Meters can be made to run backward by heat efficient house design,and innovative use of solar and geothermal heat where available , and I think you will find a heat pump will be a lot more attractive at raising waste heat a few degrees to usable heat. and eutectic storage of heat is another area where a lot of heat can be saved for a rainy day without the losses involved in "13m stirlings buzzing away in peoples boiler cupboards"
And can you believe this
piece "On a winter's evening, with kettles, electric
cookers, irons, washing
machines and tumble dryers working, that might rise to 20 kilowatts. But with the central heating and hot water on, the home would be generating its own electricity, lightening the load on the grid, the family budget, and the
environment." I would love any explanation at all as to how the wastage i am creating using these devices is actually going to power the whole lot!! I think someone just rewrote the 1st and maybe the second law of thermodynamics once again!
machines and tumble dryers working, that might rise to 20 kilowatts. But with the central heating and hot water on, the home would be generating its own electricity, lightening the load on the grid, the family budget, and the
environment." I would love any explanation at all as to how the wastage i am creating using these devices is actually going to power the whole lot!! I think someone just rewrote the 1st and maybe the second law of thermodynamics once again!
Regards
John Harris
Message: 9
Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000 13:57:11 +0900
From: Keith Addison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Fwd: Re: Free electricity for the home
This is from Steve's excellent Renewable Energy Online Newsletter
(see end for subscription info).
"It won't make electricity meters run backwards," it says. Have you
ever seen an electricity meter run backwards? I have! It's a VERY
funny sight! That was in England too. I later found that such things
are not unknown in Holland, where it's also possible to see a gas
meter running backwards. Then there was that kid hacker in Israel (he
hacked NASA or the CIA or something) who figured out how to make his
PHONE BILL run backwards, man! None of this had anything to do with
Stirling engines though.
Keith Addison
Journey to Forever
Handmade Projects
Tokyo
http://journeytoforever.org/
Home-made answer to generating electricity harks back to the past
Special report: Renewable energy
James Meek, science correspondent
Guardian
Saturday September 2, 2000
Householders could one day be producing as much electricity as all the
country's nuclear power stations combined, thanks to the revolutionary
application of a device developed in the early 19th century.
A new version of the device, the Stirling engine, is set to turn ordinary
domestic gas boilers into miniature power stations, generating electricity
whenever you switch on the central heating or hot water.
It won't make electricity meters run backwards. But for an estimated £500
extra on the price of a new boiler, the machine will generate electricity
for the home for nothing, using excess heat that would otherwise escape out
the flue.
In Britain, a confidential report prepared for electricity companies by
energy consultants EA Technology estimates that by 2025, 13m of the
country's 23m households could have their own little power station humming
away in the boiler cupboard.
The Stirling engine was patented in 1816 by a Scottish clergyman, Robert
Stirling. It consists of two cylinders, filled with gas, each containing a
piston. The cylinders are heated and cooled in turn, making the pistons move
up and down to turn a drive shaft.
In existing domestic gas boilers, about a third of the heat is wasted. With
the latest make of Stirling engine fitted, that spare heat is used to drive
a small generator.
The idea of turning homes into power stations is known as "micro chp"
(combined heat and power).
EA Technology is championing a Stirling engine made by WhisperTech, a New
Zealand company, which can generate a kilowatt of electricity - enough to
power three fridges.
British Gas is working on a different design with a similar power output,
based on an engine from the US firm SunPower.
"We have now got to the stage where we've overcome the technical barriers,
and it's simply a matter of product development, things like designing the
right colour for the casing," said EA Technology's Jeremy Harrison.
He said the first units would be on sale in 2002. Depending on the size of
the home, he said, they would save householders between £150 and £300 a year
on their electricity bills.
The beauty of micro chp is that it cuts in when demand on the grid from
households is greatest. On a summer's afternoon, with the fridge on and the
TV and VCR on standby, a household might be using only a few hundred watts
of electricity.
On a winter's evening, with kettles, electric cookers, irons, washing
machines and tumble dryers working, that might rise to 20 kilowatts. But
with the central heating and hot water on, the home would be generating its
own electricity, lightening the load on the grid, the family budget, and the
environment.
EA Technology estimates that at peak times, a network of 13m households
would generate 15,000 to 23,000 megawatts of electricity, compared with
15,000 megawatts produced by the country's nuclear power stations.
However, if the government wanted to promote micro chp specifically as a way
of cutting down on the carbon dioxide emissions held responsible for global
warming, it would need to close high-emitting coal-fired power stations,
rather than nuclear ones.
The government has been keen to promote chp as a means of implementing the
1997 Kyoto protocols, which called for reductions in carbon emissions.
http://www.gasunie.nl/eng/p_pg.htm
http://www.sunpower.com/
http://www.webconx.com/engines.htm
http://www.eatechnology.com/
--
Steve Spence
Subscribe to the Renewable Energy Newsletter:
http://www.webconx.com/subscribe.htm
Renewable Energy Pages - http://www.webconx.com
Palm Pilot Pages - http://www.webconx.com/palm
X10 Home Automation - http://www.webconx.com/x10
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(212) 894-3704 x3154 - voicemail/fax
We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors,
we borrow it from our children.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000 13:57:11 +0900
From: Keith Addison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Fwd: Re: Free electricity for the home
This is from Steve's excellent Renewable Energy Online Newsletter
(see end for subscription info).
"It won't make electricity meters run backwards," it says. Have you
ever seen an electricity meter run backwards? I have! It's a VERY
funny sight! That was in England too. I later found that such things
are not unknown in Holland, where it's also possible to see a gas
meter running backwards. Then there was that kid hacker in Israel (he
hacked NASA or the CIA or something) who figured out how to make his
PHONE BILL run backwards, man! None of this had anything to do with
Stirling engines though.
Keith Addison
Journey to Forever
Handmade Projects
Tokyo
http://journeytoforever.org/
Home-made answer to generating electricity harks back to the past
Special report: Renewable energy
James Meek, science correspondent
Guardian
Saturday September 2, 2000
Householders could one day be producing as much electricity as all the
country's nuclear power stations combined, thanks to the revolutionary
application of a device developed in the early 19th century.
A new version of the device, the Stirling engine, is set to turn ordinary
domestic gas boilers into miniature power stations, generating electricity
whenever you switch on the central heating or hot water.
It won't make electricity meters run backwards. But for an estimated £500
extra on the price of a new boiler, the machine will generate electricity
for the home for nothing, using excess heat that would otherwise escape out
the flue.
In Britain, a confidential report prepared for electricity companies by
energy consultants EA Technology estimates that by 2025, 13m of the
country's 23m households could have their own little power station humming
away in the boiler cupboard.
The Stirling engine was patented in 1816 by a Scottish clergyman, Robert
Stirling. It consists of two cylinders, filled with gas, each containing a
piston. The cylinders are heated and cooled in turn, making the pistons move
up and down to turn a drive shaft.
In existing domestic gas boilers, about a third of the heat is wasted. With
the latest make of Stirling engine fitted, that spare heat is used to drive
a small generator.
The idea of turning homes into power stations is known as "micro chp"
(combined heat and power).
EA Technology is championing a Stirling engine made by WhisperTech, a New
Zealand company, which can generate a kilowatt of electricity - enough to
power three fridges.
British Gas is working on a different design with a similar power output,
based on an engine from the US firm SunPower.
"We have now got to the stage where we've overcome the technical barriers,
and it's simply a matter of product development, things like designing the
right colour for the casing," said EA Technology's Jeremy Harrison.
He said the first units would be on sale in 2002. Depending on the size of
the home, he said, they would save householders between £150 and £300 a year
on their electricity bills.
The beauty of micro chp is that it cuts in when demand on the grid from
households is greatest. On a summer's afternoon, with the fridge on and the
TV and VCR on standby, a household might be using only a few hundred watts
of electricity.
On a winter's evening, with kettles, electric cookers, irons, washing
machines and tumble dryers working, that might rise to 20 kilowatts. But
with the central heating and hot water on, the home would be generating its
own electricity, lightening the load on the grid, the family budget, and the
environment.
EA Technology estimates that at peak times, a network of 13m households
would generate 15,000 to 23,000 megawatts of electricity, compared with
15,000 megawatts produced by the country's nuclear power stations.
However, if the government wanted to promote micro chp specifically as a way
of cutting down on the carbon dioxide emissions held responsible for global
warming, it would need to close high-emitting coal-fired power stations,
rather than nuclear ones.
The government has been keen to promote chp as a means of implementing the
1997 Kyoto protocols, which called for reductions in carbon emissions.
http://www.gasunie.nl/eng/p_pg.htm
http://www.sunpower.com/
http://www.webconx.com/engines.htm
http://www.eatechnology.com/
--
Steve Spence
Subscribe to the Renewable Energy Newsletter:
http://www.webconx.com/subscribe.htm
Renewable Energy Pages - http://www.webconx.com
Palm Pilot Pages - http://www.webconx.com/palm
X10 Home Automation - http://www.webconx.com/x10
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(212) 894-3704 x3154 - voicemail/fax
We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors,
we borrow it from our children.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
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