This short video will give you some of the design basics and ideas. There is no limit to what can be done when we start to think out of the box and collaborate to create synergy. http://youtu.be/mcTJXz_ohVw
Cogeneration is the sumultaneous production of two forms of energy from a single fuel source. In our case, we will be using natural gas to make electricity and hot water for heat and domestic hot water for the Inn. The system will be located in Catherine’s pottery studio and will be able to be viewed by guests at the Inn and for tours. The energy production will be avilable online as well.
The typical power plant generates electricity at a 35 to 40% efficiency and dumps all the rest of the heat to the atmosphere or to a body of water (casuing other issues in the lake) so for 10 units of fuel you get 3.5 to 4 back in usable energy. This is partly due to the fact that everyone wants to power plants burning dirty coal to be located far away so it is impossible to use the heat energy that could be captured.
With smaller scale distributed energy and using cogeneration , for every 10 units of fuel, we can get back 9 units of usable energy in the form of electricity and hot water thus benefiting the environment. Europe generates 35% of the energy by cogneration while it is only about 8% in the US.
Cogeneration or as it is now called Combine Heat and Power allows for the efficent use of natural gas (some systems run on propane, oil and coal) and range from 1kw to many megawatts is output. The fuel is burned to make electricity but unlike the ower plant that just dumps the heat (thus only 35% efficient) a CHP caputures the majority of the waste heat so you can operate at a total efficiency of 90%. The system will be housed in the studio and will be visibly through a large window for viewing by the public.
In Europe, over a one 3rd of all electricity is produced through cogeneration. In the USA it is only a couple of a percent.
