Terry Blanton wrote:
http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/411/
"I think Bloom Energy is looking to install 100 Kilowatt power units
in everyone's houses. These will be flex-fuel, but likely running
mostly on natural gas. They will also probably produce heat, and
cooling, as well as power, making the devices roughly 85% efficient
(thus generating two times less greenhouse gas emissions than a power
plant per unit of power used.) "
Not very geeky considering that the mean electric power consumption
for an average house is 1 kW. A 10 kW unit should be adequate.
Adequate, yes, but if you have huge house and you want keep
everything running because you use the generator full time, you need
something bigger. The Generac corporation has a web page used to size
their stand-by generators:
<http://www.generac.com/Residential/Sizer/>http://www.generac.com/Residential/Sizer/
I just told the configuration page that I live in Atlanta and have a
5000 sq. ft. house and I want to turn on absolutely everything they
have listed at the same time. The page figured I would need 46 kW to
59 kW of capacity.
The Generac Guardian Series 60 kW unit costs $16,122 retail from Amazon.com.
Actually my house is 2000 sq. ft. and I don't even have most of the
high demand stuff they list on the config page such as an electric
range and electric water heater or a hot tub. Configuring it for my
real house, which has a heat pump, it tells me I need 12 kW to 16 kW
and recommends the 17 kW unit, which Amazon sells for $3,600,
including the panel and equipment for the automatic transfer switch.
It is powered by natural gas. Very reasonable cost. If I had someone
in the house with a medical condition that requires electricity (as a
neighbor of mine used to have) I would get one of these.
I suppose it would cost a few grand to have this installed . . .
- Jed
