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Re: Selling electricity back into the public grid



Michael Maas <masimo@netcom.com> wrote:
>Nick Pine (nick@vu-vlsi.ee.vill.edu) wrote:
>
>: Residential, home-heating-oil-burning Intelligen cogeneration systems
>: typically pay for themselves in 3-5 years, by zeroing out peoples' electric
>: bills, without even counting income from net overproduction of electricity. 
>
>I believe the price of the intelligen system is right around 10k.  A 5 year
>payoff would mean 2k per year.  2k seems like a lot of electricity to me.
>How are you figuring this payback?

Electricity where I live is about 12 cents/kWh, max. There are a lot of people
with electric bills of $150/month or more, especially those with electric heat,
many of whom have grown to hate electric companies with a passion. I wrote a
little computer program to estimate payback periods, using electric company
step-tarrifs, and some previous electric and oil bills for a house. Several
calcs for proposed systems showed payback periods of 1-6 years. The best was
for two neighbors, sharing a system for home and swimming pool heating. The
worst was for a small auto repair shop, with demand service, a welder and an
air compressor.
 
Payback is better if you already need a new oil burner. Of course plain oil
burners have an infinite payback period, and seldom operate with Intelligen's
93% efficiency. Their unit has a 150F exhaust gas temp, and uses a 1 1/2" PVC
fluepipe.

Yes, $2K is a lot of electricity. I could find better investments than an
Intelligen system, with my monthly electric bill of less than $50, but I'm
an energy miser, with a tankful of oil in the basement that I haven't used
in two years, and I rant more about telephone rates than electric rates... :-)

Nick


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