Distributed, private, co-generation is almost certainly part of the solution as we move toward energy independence and reduced emissions. As reported by News.com, Climate Energy, a small Massachusetts company has put a micro-sized combined heat and power unit for homes on the market.

Combined heat and power units are nothing new, they’ve been in use for many years in manufacturing and large, multi-building developments. What makes this entry different is that it is a straight replacement for furnances and supplements the installation with power production of 1.2 kilowatts, or potentially up to 720 kilowatt hours per month (while heat is in use.) To make this personal, in our household we used just over 800 kilowatt hours in January – that would nearly eliminate our power bill taking some $150 in charges out of the equation.

However, this is still a fossil fuel unit powered by natural gas and the $13,500 cost takes around 90 months of heating to break even at our consumption level. It’s a step in the right direction, but there is clearly more room for improvement. Thanks Scott for passing this along.


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This entry was posted on Friday, February 2nd, 2007 at 7:59 am and is filed under Business.