Appliance Design - March 2008 - (Page 14)

POWER A New Appliance Arrives The Ceres/British Gas micro CHP unit (background) will use a stack of 40 fuel cells (example at left) made by Ceres Power. Novel residential units produce both heat and electricity. by larry adams 14 applianceDESIGN March 2008 rare event is occurring in the home appliance cosmos – the birth of a new star. The thing is not just an improved product that is smaller, faster, more powerful or more efficient. Nor is it just an upgraded product featuring more bells and whistles. Instead, this emergent star represents an entire new category of home appliance – the micro CHP unit. CHP stands for combined heat and power, and the term micro is used to distinguish it from larger scale commercial implementations. While individual home generators and home heating equipment have been on the market for a long time, innovative packages that produce both heat and electricity may very well become the next, must-have, great thing for the home Micro CHP systems come in several technology types, but they all revolve around a core concept of using a fuel to create electricity and capturing the waste heat that is generated during that conversion process. If A widely deployed, this two-for-one concept could some day help reduce CO2 emissions by addressing the energy losses that occur during the conventional production and distribution of electricity. Much energy is lost as waste heat at the site of a fuel-fired power plant, and more is lost in the grid due to cumulative resistance and transformer losses. On average, almost two-thirds of the fuel used to make electricity in the U.S. is wasted in this fashion, according to the U.S. Combined Heat & Power Association. By contrast, an on-site micro CHP system successfully converts about 90 percent of the energy it consumes. These significantly lower losses mean that greater use of distributed (on-site) power production using CHP could, in and of itself, sharply reduce the aggregate amount of fuel burned to produce electricity. The heat-production of the CHP units obviously provide a greater benefit during cold seasons when the need for heat is greatwww.applianceDESIGN.com http://www.appliancedesign.com

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Appliance Design - March 2008 Contents Editorial Shipments/Forecasts News Watch A New Appliance is Set to Break into Homes Soon - the Micro CHP Unit, which Generate both Heat and Power. Thermally Enhanced Varistors Help Protect Low-Power Systems Against Damage Caused by Over-Current, Over-Temperature and Over-Voltage Faults. Hybrid Controller Reduces Standby Power Consumption and Improves Active-Mode Efficiency. Battery-Management ICs Solve Design Challenges for Cordless Appliances Using High-Voltage, Lithium-Ion Battery Technology. A Semiconductor Solution Protects the Relay in a Temperature Controller for a Cooking Appliance. New Polyurethane Foam Insulation System Optimizes both Insulation Performance and Productivity. Innovations in Decorative, Pre-Finished Metals Expand Range of Design Options for Appliance Designers. Design Marts Association Report: AHAM Advertiser's Index

Appliance Design - March 2008

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