Boilers With the Ability to Generate Electricity Unveiled in the UK

It now seems that domestic gas boilers that can simultaneously generate electricity and heat have just recently been unveiled in the UK. These boilers would be able to provide a low carbon option to power homes.

These so called “micro combined heat and power units” look like an ordinary wall hung gas boiler. However, these boilers, as well as being able to generate heat for radiators and water, produce electricity as a byproduct. Thus, making it one of the few machines that gives off a byproduct that people can actually use.

Traditional boilers are highly efficient at generating heat within a house. In this kind of set up, about 90 percent of the energy in the fuel is converted into useful heat that people can use. However, conventional electricity generation is highly inefficient, only turning about 35 percent of energy in the fuel into electricity. Most of the rest is wasted as heat in the power station.

However, these new boilers are able to create enough electricity for a one bar electric fire as a byproduct of heat generation. This reduces wastage and means that 92 percent of the total energy in the gas is converted into heat or electricity. These new boilers are able to produce around 1,800 and 2,400 Kwh of electricity a year. This is more than half of what a typical gas heated home total demands to run.

Larger micro devices like these have been available in the UK for a number of years. However, these new boilers are the first to be comparable in size to a conventional boiler. The others were often too large for normal home use. However, these units will cost around twice as much as a large regular boiler. Over time it would make up for this cost by saving on home owners’ power bills.