Hi there,
Just wondering if anyone knows the answer to this question: In
commercial power producing Stirling Engines that are used for home
heat and electricity, what happens when the heat is not required in
the house but the electricity is required. Can excess heat be
recycled in the Engine to create more electricity, or can it be
dumped (up the flue)?
Cheers,
Adam
Excess heat - dump or recycle
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adam.hawkes
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Response to Excess heat - dump or recycle
Combined Heat and Power, CHP, units for residential use are intended to get the most benefit out of the natural gas input. They use a portion of the heat content of the gas to generate electricity and the balance for generation of electricity. The economy of this system is dependent on lower gas enery costs vs. electric power. It is the heat rejected from the Stirling engine which is utilized for heating. Any excess electric power is 'sold' back to the powere distributor. When heating is required the system goes into standby.
Large industrial and building systems use the CHP concept to maximaize utilization of their energy consumption and minimize cost.
Large industrial and building systems use the CHP concept to maximaize utilization of their energy consumption and minimize cost.
Response to Excess heat - dump or recycle
Stirling engines can eliminate waste in two very important ways. First by generating electricty right where it will be used they eliminate all the transmission line losses. This saves roughly 50% of the "electrical losses" right there.
Second they are set up to use the engine waste heat to heat domestic water and heat the house. These Stirling engines are most efficient in places where you need heat most of the time such as hotels that need a lot of hot water all the time and in climates where heating is needed most of the year.
You could set up the engine to turn on either when the house needs heat or when it needs electricty. Most houses will set up their Stirling engines to turn on when the house needs heat. In other words it acts as a furnace while generating "free" electricity. If you pay for the heat you get the electricty for no additional cost. Murray White, president of Stirling Technology Company of Kennewick Washington explains this in Chapter 8 of my book.
When the process of heating your house produces more electricty than your house needs at the time, the excess electricy will feed the grid, and of course the house will buy electricty from the grid if it needs it at a time when it doesn't also need heat.
Second they are set up to use the engine waste heat to heat domestic water and heat the house. These Stirling engines are most efficient in places where you need heat most of the time such as hotels that need a lot of hot water all the time and in climates where heating is needed most of the year.
You could set up the engine to turn on either when the house needs heat or when it needs electricty. Most houses will set up their Stirling engines to turn on when the house needs heat. In other words it acts as a furnace while generating "free" electricity. If you pay for the heat you get the electricty for no additional cost. Murray White, president of Stirling Technology Company of Kennewick Washington explains this in Chapter 8 of my book.
When the process of heating your house produces more electricty than your house needs at the time, the excess electricy will feed the grid, and of course the house will buy electricty from the grid if it needs it at a time when it doesn't also need heat.