Residential Facilities
 Tecogen cogeneration and cooling CHP products are a proven way for larger multi-unit residential facilities to reduce their operating costs and carbon footprints significantly, and maximize overall efficiency.
Large residential facilities represent an excellent match for CHP systems, due to their steady electric and thermal loads. Best applications include large apartment buildings, condominiums, dormitories, retirement homes, and co-ops. Those with centralized heating systems and centralized electric metering are especially good candidates.
The “Microgrid” feature of Tecogen’s InVerde product is particularly valued in multi-unit residential buildings, because it can be easily configured to provide convenience power during an outage, keeping important services operating until the utility grid is restored.
Economic Benefits
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Operating savings to a residential facility can be over 50%, year after year. Tecogen systems can help attentive property managers, residents, and owners squeeze the most value out of limited budgets. We would be happy to provide you a detailed free economic analysis, to help you estimate the savings at your particular facility. |
System Options
Tecogen will help a residential facility determine which type of CHP system makes the most sense.
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 Cogeneration – Either a Tecogen induction generator-based or inverter-based cogeneration system can generate electricity that reduces a building’s electrical bill significantly. At the same time, free waste heat can be recovered from the cogeneration system and used to offset fuel that would otherwise have to be burned in the building’s water or pool heaters. So in addition to savings on the electricity bill, the gas bill for space heating, domestic hot water (DHW), and pool heating is also reduced. Alternatively, the free waste heat can be used to drive an absorption chiller, a device which generates cooling from a heat source, thus relieving the building’s other chillers from having to do as much of the air conditioning.
A Tecogen InVerde module can be operated independent of the grid during power outages, keeping some or even all of the building’s services operating for extended periods. The patented “Microgrid” operating software allows multiple InVerde modules to operate harmoniously without any specialized external controls or field balancing.
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 Chiller – A TECOCHILL chiller, by comparison, provides cost-effective chilled water directly for a residential facility’s chilled water loop. It does this without using expensive on-peak electricity, greatly reducing the building’s electric bill. In some facilities, free waste heat available from the engine(s) on the chiller can also be utilized to satisfy simultaneous hot water requirements, such as for domestic hot water (DHW), space heating, or pool heating.
TECOCHILL systems require very little electric power, so are ideally suited for keeping residential buildings cool when the utility power has failed. In these applications, the building’s existing backup power sources need only supply electricity for the chiller’s controls and ancillary equipment, rather than for the entire chiller.
Environmental Benefits
 Efficient Tecogen CHP systems can help a residential building reduce its Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions (CO2 output, or “carbon footprint”) by as much as 50%.
Tecogen CHP systems are a good way for a residential building to “go green”, but in a practical, sensible way. They reduce global warming emissions, while achieving decent paybacks on their own and do not rely extensively on massive government incentives and tax benefits, like some other “green” measures do. Tecogen systems are an efficient and responsible investment of property owner and taxpayer dollars.
Marketing and Educational Benefits
Tecogen systems can even provide educational benefits in residential buildings. The technology itself can be closely monitored and studied so that environmental and economic benefits can be quantified and tracked by operating personnel, interested residents, and management alike, on a “real-time” basis. With Tecogen CHP, residential facilities can be justifiably proud of their green accomplishments, and market this feature to prospective and existing residents.
Please check out our list of cogen and chiller case studies and find out how facilities similar to yours are benefitting from Tecogen.
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