Quote:
Originally Posted by redpoint5
Are you saying it could very well be cheaper to generate our own electricity from a NG genset than purchase it from the grid?
You would need a battery to supply peak demands. Perhaps the genset would only run when the battery depletes to a certain threshold; running at peak efficiency whenever it is automatically started.
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http://www.marathonengine.com/costscomparison.html
Spells it out there, now if I could get a version for OFF GRID my problem would be solved.
Yes in a nutshell natural gas can be much cheaper at creating electricity than just buying electricity because of the fact that
1. Regional politics create rediculous pricing schemes (mainly for electricity)
2. Regional politics create rediculous fee scheduals
Your pricing is much different than my area, NG is very cheap here (has been for decades) and electricity is relatively expensive
My fees are much higher than yours and include usage based fees as well which further mud the issue on electricity.
In your case your electricity cost and natural gas costs are inverted compared to mine, even with this fact cogeneration is usefull if you have a long heating season and can do it cheaply
The reason is that even if your natural gas electricity is more expensive you are effectively using "waste" energy in the winter to create electricity and likely would burn the gas anyway but now also get electricity from it.
You also then save the fee, your fee is much lower than mine (about half) but it is still money you do not spend.
You also would have more control over your power and likely have a better opportunity and motivation (being partially off grid) to save energy/increase efficiency and reduce costs further.
But I digress