Combined Heat & Power Overview

Combined Heat & Power (CHP) is truly a way to get “two for the price of one”. CHP is also sometimes referred to as electrical or mechanical cogeneration. With CHP, you can make the electricity or cooling power that you need, plus capture much of the thermal energy that is normally lost during the energy conversion into power. With CHP, the “waste” thermal energy gets captured and put to good use on site, for heating water or building spaces. A normally very energy intensive task (heating) is now accomplished at no additional cost to the customer or environment. This double-duty translates into significant energy and cost savings for the customer, as well as proportional decreases in carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions. With CHP, you get the electricity and heat that your building needs (or, alternatively, the chilled water and heat), for a lot less input energy and money than if you procured them separately, the conventional and inefficient way.

Tecogen offers two types of CHP systems to suit your facility’s particular application requirements:

• TECOGEN – With a Tecogen cogeneration system, you get both electricity and heat for your building, from a single fuel source, resulting in dramatic savings on your energy bills. The engine’s mechanical energy is used to drive a generator that makes electricity, while at the same time the engine’s free waste heat gets recovered to satisfy building heating needs. This is sometimes referred to as “electrical” cogeneration.
• TECOCHILL – With a TECOCHILL chiller system, you get both chilling and heat for your building, from a single fuel source, resulting in dramatic savings on your energy bills. The engine’s mechanical energy is used to drive a compressor that makes chilled water, while the engine’s free waste heat can be recovered to satisfy simultaneous building heating needs. This is sometimes referred to as “mechanical” cogeneration.

Tecogen would like to help you determine whether one or both of these systems could deliver substantial benefits to your facility, by providing a free, site-specific economic analysis.