Why Not??

[Soundbear]

Anybody wanna discuss odd ball ideas??

The thought occurred to me that it's an awful waste to have a 100 horsepower plus engine sitting outside in your car doing nothing all night long.

Why couldn't it run on natural gas and heat and supply power to your house??

[velle]

Popular Mechanics did an article on something like this many years ago.They used a V8 engine.I've often thought of this ever since seeing the article but not sure it would be economical.

[Soundbear]

I think Trane has tried twice over the years to create a natural gas powered generating and heating system for homes. An internal comustion engine runs a heat pum, has all it's waste heat taken and runs a generator for power. estimates I read were of a 50 percent savings to homeowners on power and heat.

[Lance1]

My quess is a house needs a 5000W generator to run everything and the gas to run a unit like that would cost more then what PUC would charge to be on the grid. Plus a generator only has so many hours of operating time before it needs to be rebuilt or replaced,is louder and needs oil changes.

[Soundbear]

You may be right as to the costs. Trane estimated a 50 percent over all energy saving in their
promotions years ago.

BTW, a big generator running on natural gas lasts as much as 10 times longer than a gasoline engine, because of the nature of the fuel. Don't need as many oil changes either.