[s-cars] NAC: CoGen systems for home use

[Lee Levitt]

Absolutely no Audi content here, so please consider responding 
on/offlist as appropriate...

I'm going to be replacing my 45 year old oil furnace this year and 
was planning on going with a high efficiency oil furnace.

Then I found this:

http://www.climate-energy.com/

Natural gas or propane fired heating system, powered by Honda, 
that generates domestic heat or hot water and also generates 
electricity to put back on the grid.

Pretty interesting, as they claim that NG is more efficient than 
oil, and they're expecting to see $500-$1000 per year electricity 
credit.

It gets more interesting.

Next year, they expect to have the ability to run the system as a 
backup generator in the event of an electrical outage. (Right now, 
they simply shut down the system due to safety issues, and are 
working on an automatic disconnect from the grid).

And it gets better...

Within two years, they also expect to be able to tie in to PV 
panels. They already have the inverter in their system which is 
required for PV installations, so it's more cost effective to then 
add in the PV option.

The really interesting part of this last item is that the entire 
system *may* then be eligible for a federal tax credit of up to 
50% of the while system...if this is true, I might put off the 
upgrade until I'd be eligible for this...

Evidently Honda has 50,000 installations of this system in Japan, 
and this particular Massachusetts based company is expecting to 
install 200-400 this year. Life of the engine is expected to be 10 
years.

Comments, thoughts, other alternative systems people have found?

Lee