The Fuel Cell For Home
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The Fuel Cell For Home
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Re: The Fuel Cell For Home
#2Does anyone know what makes this more compelling than static power generation over the electric grid? Gas-fired power plants are pretty efficient. Is this significantly better?
Re: The Fuel Cell For Home
#3Does anyone know what makes this more compelling than static power generation over the electric grid? Gas-fired power plants are pretty efficient. Is this significantly better?
The big win is having the waste heat available at the house.
Re: The Fuel Cell For Home
#4Does anyone know what makes this more compelling than static power generation over the electric grid? Gas-fired power plants are pretty efficient. Is this significantly better?
I suspect it's a question of what you do with the waste heat. Combined Heat and Power (CHP) stations are very efficient, but you need a way to distribute heat around the neighbourhood, which is expensive. A home fuel cell could generate electricity efficiently, plus put the waste heat right where you need it for space heating or hot water.
Re: The Fuel Cell For Home
#5Does anyone know what makes this more compelling than static power generation over the electric grid? Gas-fired power plants are pretty efficient. Is this significantly better?
The big win is having the waste heat available at the house.
It also eliminates loss due to the friction between moving parts.
Re: The Fuel Cell For Home
#6The following links in the submitted article as text, but are not given
as clickable links. They give more details about the field testing being
done.
Re: The Fuel Cell For Home
#7Re: The Fuel Cell For Home
#8Does anyone know what makes this more compelling than static power generation over the electric grid? Gas-fired power plants are pretty efficient. Is this significantly better?
[deleted]
Re: The Fuel Cell For Home
#9Does anyone know what makes this more compelling than static power generation over the electric grid? Gas-fired power plants are pretty efficient. Is this significantly better?
A potential factor is improved efficiency due to not relying on an electricity transmission and distribution grid, and generating the electricity where it is needed...
1. Electricity grids have to account for a loss factor due to the accumulated resistance of the wires between the power station and where the electricity is actually used. This power is lost as heat radiating from the transmission wires. That said, I'm unfamiliar with gas transmission networks so I would assume there is some degree of potential energy loss through gas leaking from pipelines, etc. I expect it is lower than electricity grids however?
2. If the power generation is decentralised, I would assume that less would be spent on electricity substations, although that might be countered with a greater spend on maintaining the gas distribution network. I'm not an engineer, but I get the feeling that perhaps maintaining the pressure of gas to balance fluctuating demand is easier than maintaining the voltage/frequency of AC in a grid?
2.