Combined Heat and Power

The main problem with burning fossil fuels to heat our homes and power our lives is not just that they are dwindling in supply, but also the greenhouses gases they produce are slowly killing our planet. Luckily there are many companies working on solutions to improve our energy efficiency and cut down on our emissions. One such solution is a combined heat and power (CHP) unit which will generate electricity as well as burn natural gas to heat your home. Such units look very similar to existing boilers and can be installed in existing central heating and hot water systems. The added ability to provide an electrical current is the significant development.

Such CHP units integrate an engine which can generate electricity whilst it heats. Around 1kW of electricity is generated each hour, along with up to 6kW of heating potential. The user can control temperatures and output levels and most units can be turned down rather than off so that they continue to generate electricity even when they are not heating the home.

The best aspect of combined heat and power solutions is that they allow you to sell electricity back to the grid, increasing the savings you make because of the improved efficiency. Any electricity you are not using feeds back into the main power grid to be used by other customers.

Electricity which is generated in your own home is more efficient because it does not have to travel long distances. There are a whole range of CHP systems to suit domestic use, as well as larger scale products for industrial use.

Combined heat and power units generate heat and electricity at the same time. An example is Baxi's Ecogen unit.

Video of Ecogen unit.