Co-Generation

For off-grid residents this is a concept worth considering.

Co-generation is a system where you use the waste heat from power generation to serve a useful purpose elsewhere.

Among the early examples was using the waste heat from generating power for a paper mill located far from the grid, the mill had to generate its own power. The waste heat is used to dry the paper as part of the manufacturing process.

On a micro scale this technique can also be used to generate electricity for an off grid home and piping the waste heat from the generator engine into the house for heat.

The rule of thumb is the electricity generated is 1/3 of the energy content of the fuel burned another 1/3 is waste heat from the cooling water and 1/3 of the energy goes out the exhaust.

Various schemes have evolved for recovering this waste energy in the form of heat.

Small air cooled engines are not very well suited for heat recovery. Liquid cooled engines are better but are rarely found in the small sizes often used for home power.

Liquid cooled  engines  used as stationary generators  have a radiator mounted to the frame the generator sits on To convert this setup to co-generation you  re-plumb the piping so the coolant liquid ( usually antifreeze or water) is piped to the house and either hydronic  systems radiators   or liquid to  air radiator in the forced air ducts are used.

If the generator is not run continuously a thermal mass storage system   is used.   A large volume of water is used to store the heat and a circulating pump and pipe system is then used to distribute   the heat throughout the house.

~~  END  ~~