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By Ted Mitchell (registered) | Posted January 04, 2001 at 01:41:20
The first parts of an energy retrofit are simple and inexpensive, then as Ryan points out, get really expensive quickly.
ONe small ray of hope will come soon because of technology (which on its own is rarely useful in fulfilling the goal of improving efficiency).
This is small scale residential "cogeneration" or CHP (combined heat and power). The deal is you start with an engine (fancy, like the superefficient Sterling engine, e.g. Whispergen, or conventional internal combustion, e.g. Honda) and use it to generate electricity to use in your house or feed back to the grid. THe waste heat from this process can be used for space heating or hot water heating.
This is the basic setup, more complex schemes could run A/C's directly or through absorbtion technology etc.
Fuel is generally clean burning natural gas.
THe "exergy" that is just wasted in burning natural gas for space heating gets put to better use - electricity, while still getting most of the waste heat from the engine.
At present this is not available in North America but will be soon. It is also still quite expensive.
More benefits from this include unloading the grid and ensuring power in emergency outages.
My gas furnace's days are numbered.
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