Subject: Re: Who makes this natural gas heat pump?

From: [email-masked] (Rick Nyman)
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 1995 23:13:31 GMT

[email-masked] (Nick Pine) wrote:
>Can cogeneration for heating be far behind? :-) It seems to me that once
>you have solved the engine life problem, hooking it up to an electrical
>generator and running the engine block cooling water through baseboard
>radiators or a fan coil unit is an obvious next step, and one that is
>easier than the first step... 

I don't remember much about it, but there is a fairly new unit out
there that would replace an oil furnace (I vaguely remember the price
as $10,000US +, but won't swear to it).  It might have been either in
Mechanical Engineering magazine (ASME) or Popular Science - otherwise
it was in one of the newsgroups.

The system is a small Diesel engine hooked to an alternator - the
engine runs at 3600 RPM.  When the thermostat calls for heat, the
engine starts.  The electrical power (it's in the low kW range) is
sold to the grid and the engine heat works on the house.
Alternatively, there are resistance heaters that increase the capacity
of the system if needed.

The system automatically shuts off if the grid power dies as a safety
measure.  
--
Rick Nyman <[email-masked]>
A recent graduate of Virginia Tech's Mechanical Engineering department.
(Still looking for a job)
Home Page: http://sfbox.vt.edu:10021/E/enyman/index.html
My ASMEnet account: [email-masked]