Co-gen in your kitchen from Ohio based Sunpower

[leftupnorth]

http://pesn.com/2006/03/03/9600241_SunPower_Micro_Cogeneration/
or
http://www.americanantigravity.com/articles/446/1/Sunpower-Unveils-2007-Co-Generation-Technology/Page1.html

Product exhibitor Sunpower Inc unveils the Microgen Combined Heat & Power (microCHP) system, an innovative electrical co-generation unit scheduled to hit the European consumer market in 2007 through British appliance distributor Microgen, Inc. The Microgen system is powered by natural gas and utilizes a free-piston Stirling-cycle engine to generate both a kilowatt of 50hz electrical energy in addition to home water-heating for domestic cooking & home-heating systems.

The Sunpower/Microgen marketing strategy is to target residential homes in Western Europe currently utilizing natural-gas fired boilers typically mounted on a kitchen cabinet The high-reliability and low operating noise of the Microgen free-piston Stirling design allows the company to replace these boilers with a co-generation unit featuring both the low-noise and high-reliability of a kitchen refrigerator, while additionally producing a kilowatt of direct electrical energy and complete home-water heating needs.

Video even:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6529537814937384757

I want to know when we can get this in the USA!

[Greyskye]

1. Great stuff

I've been really curious why people weren't developing more applications for Sterling engines, now that materials science has progressed to the point that they are of a useful size and weight. I suspect that dozens of little concepts like this will be coming along in the near future.

[IDemo]

2. There's a great book about the early years of Sunpower

Well worth the read -

The Next Great Thing: The Sun, the Stirling Engine, and the Drive to Change the World
by Mark L. Shelton (Author)

Sunpower Inc., founded in 1970 by William J. Beale, is a bootstrap engineering research company with a Holy Grail mission: to harness Stirling heat engine technology to applications that could save the world from carbon fuel pollution and could eliminate ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons from the atmosphere. In Shelton's lively account, Beale and his fellow engineers in Athens, Ohio, attempt to rob the second law of thermodynamics to give the world nearly free energy for basic heating, cooling and pumping operations. Also joining Beale, who emerges as a sort of second generation Buckminster Fuller, are the company's machinists and support staff--all dedicated to the cause and the process of their R & D effort. In this depiction of Sunpower's research and its ever more time absorbing and not always productive search for funding, freelancer Shelton captures the sheer sense of joy that powers these workers at technological frontiers and proves himself a technology writer on a par with Tracy Kidder.

http://www.amazon.com/Next-Great-Thing-Stirling-Engine/dp/0393036197

[leftupnorth]

3. Thanks

It's on my list.

It may very well be the next great thing, especially if costs come down.

[hankthecrank]

4. Here a link with one you can buy here in the US

Makers of Stirling engine with AC or DC and heat source

http://www.whispertech.co.nz/main/products/

They sell a small DC version that also provides heat

They have one For AC power and heat in house but that model is still
Overseas. But I sure one of the boat dealers can get one.

List of US dealers

http://www.whispertech.co.nz/main/dcdistributors/

[greenman3610]

5. what is the efficiency advantage

with these things?

[Some Jerk]

6. efficiency advantage

is that instead of a boiler, you have a generator that heats water with its waste heat. These are sterling cycle engines, which basically move a piston by heating and cooling opposite end of a cylinder, and using the temperature difference. An external combustion engine, which is inherently pretty efficient. They also claim it runs on diesel, kerosene or propane, so this is a pretty kickass for an off-the-grid doomsday cabin. I read an article the other day on a company rolling out a similar concept, but it was just a natural gas powered honda generator. Much less fuel flexibility and less durable when the flame is inside the cylinder.

[leftupnorth]

7. If I understand it correctly,

It primarily heats water for space heat and bathing then uses the stirling engine to generate electricity from the waste heat from the boiler and it is cooled by the return water from the radiant heat. Pretty ingenious.