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Home Heating From Waste Heat From Home Power Generation

Instead of just burning fuel in winter merely to stay warm -- a stupid waste of high quality fossil fuels -- why not use the waste heat from an engine to stay warm and then sell the surplus power to the grid?

A Stirling engine is quiet and the low efficiency low power density shouldn't be a big deal. Anything above 0% is an improvement over just burning fuel in a furnance.

If necessary, new houses could be built around the engine.

The utilities could then distribute the energy to places with conventional resistance heat and heat pumps.

Stirling Energy Systems would be wise to eventually approach the millions of home owners in the NE after getting started with utilities in the SW.

Bret Cahill

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Bret Cahill
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Stirling engines may have competitive thermal efficiencies.

Brian Whatcott

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Brian Whatcott

Why not just build smaller houses?

Reply to
sugna41
< Stirling engines may have < competitive thermal < efficiencies.

What could be more inefficient than burning natural gas or 2 oil in a furnance and not producing any mechanical energy whatsoever? Even if the engine had an efficiency of 1% it would STILL be better thermodynamically than what they are doing now in cold places where heat pumps don't work.

The economics as well as the thermodynamics are, a fortiori, better for oil and gas heat homeowners than that utility in S. California buying

20K solar dishes to heat Stirling engines for 500 MW of power.

First, thousands of engines are especially well suited for distributed power regardless if you are using solar or nat. gas or any other method to heat the engine.

Second, a home heated by a furnance does not need an expensive solar dish. Just use nat. gas or 2 oil to heat the engine at much higher temperatures and Carnot efficiencies. Then sell the juice and use the waste heat to heat the house.

Someone needs to contact Stirling Energy and tell them they have a much bigger much more cost effective market in the NE for their engines than out in the desert.

Bret Cahill

Reply to
Bret Cahill

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