The technology was developed in 2000 by Climate Energy, a Massachusetts-based company, and is now completing its trial testing period. Basically, �the micro-combined heat and power system�, or micro-CHP replaces an old-fashioned furnace and harvests energy produced while a natural gas-burning generator produces up to 1.2 kilowatts of electricity.
The Climate Energy system utilizes roughly 90 percent of the energy it produces.
The technology, known as co-generation, has been unavailable in the United States for small-scale residential use, although industrial applications have been used in large apartment buildings.
�There are all kinds of co-generation technologies, but nothing on the micro scale,� said Climate Energy CEO, Eric Guyer. �That�s the big untapped market.�
Bernard Malin, a resident of Braintree, Mass., has been trial testing the micro-CHP system since last winter, and has noticed a marked decrease in his electricity bill and an improvement in his heating quality during that time.
�These gas systems burn really clean, so virtually nothing breaks. So you can really justify it with a little bit of saving on the electric bill,� said Malin. �And just having a little bit more (energy) independence away from everybody else is really nice.�
The price of the micro-CHP system, which expected to have a life of up to 20 years, is $13,500. The micro-CHP will save a residential user between $800 and $1,000 annually, according to Guyer.
In the United Kingdom, where at least four varieties of co-generation technologies are available to residential customers, it has been shown that such co-generation technologies can reduce a household�s greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 25 percent.
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