The Baxi Ecogen micro-CHP boiler

jonewer

scubadogct wrote: »

Hi

In response to those earlier comments about the kWh typo....

I think you may be mistken. As far as I see it up to 1 kWh is the orrect thing to say.

This means that the unit can on avergae deliver 1 kW ever hour. This does not mean it will be a constant 1kW form the entire hour but maybe delivered for example 2kW every 30 mins. Either way this equates to 1kWh

No.

How do you generate 2kW every 30mins? That's nonsensical. Do you know what a watt is?

robbo40_2

I have had an Ecogen fitted since November 2011 in my three bedroom bungalow. British Gas fitted and all costs were £9000+...since this date I have now had THREE boilers fitted by Baxi due to the stirling engine problems......the actual payment from the fit scheme has not produced £100 in this full year. British Gas cannot repair these boilers and always refer back to Baxi, you then have to wait for a replacememt boiler to be ordered and a qualified team of fitters from Baxi(Heatteam) to be assembled on average a waiting time of about three weeks+....the boiler will still work to produce heat and hot water but does not generate electricity in this time. I am very disappointed with the boiler and the sales talk from BGas. who quote figures of £600 savings in a year etc etc......The noise from the boiler is of a low humming noise except when the stirling engine goes wrong then anything can happen on the noise level!!.....would I recommend this boiler at this time....sorry the answer must be NO!...very much feel like the guinea pig for Baxi!

jaqjo

I also feel like a guinea pig for Baxi. My first Ecogen installed in June 2011, the second in October 2011 and the third last week. Not one of them has worked properly. Worst was them deciding to change this last one with no proper explanation as to why. Boiler number 2 was at least working.:mad: :mad::mad: Number 3 is at present locking down every hour, and they wont come out to it until MONDAY! I wouldn't recommend them at the moment, although my electricity bills have dropped from £62 per month to £15 and I have had over £200 in FIT payments. My fuel is costing more though because I have switched from oil to tank gas from Calor, (I live in the country) who were the installers and in spite of all the teething problems have bent over backwards to do whatever is needed. My rage at the moment is directed at Baxi whose customer relations are ZILCH!:mad:

:mad:

robbo40 wrote: »

I have had an Ecogen fitted since November 2011 in my three bedroom bungalow. British Gas fitted and all costs were £9000+...since this date I have now had THREE boilers fitted by Baxi due to the stirling engine problems......the actual payment from the fit scheme has not produced £100 in this full year. British Gas cannot repair these boilers and always refer back to Baxi, you then have to wait for a replacememt boiler to be ordered and a qualified team of fitters from Baxi(Heatteam) to be assembled on average a waiting time of about three weeks+....the boiler will still work to produce heat and hot water but does not generate electricity in this time. I am very disappointed with the boiler and the sales talk from BGas. who quote figures of £600 savings in a year etc etc......The noise from the boiler is of a low humming noise except when the stirling engine goes wrong then anything can happen on the noise level!!.....would I recommend this boiler at this time....sorry the answer must be NO!...very much feel like the guinea pig for Baxi!

scubadogct

jonewer wrote: »

No.

How do you generate 2kW every 30mins? That's nonsensical. Do you know what a watt is?

Yss I do thanks.
Electrical enginner working in power management.

Kw is and instanenous measurement.

My point is, if i use a 2kw load for 30 mins this equates to 1kHr.

In the case of a generator if a generator exports 2 kw for 30 mins then switches off this is 1 kwHr.

Let me know if you need me to explain it further for you.

DinoVolante

Just been reading old posts about the Baxi Ecogen CHP boiler, the costs and the fact you can only get it installed by British Gas.
Fear not I spoke to a company in Salisbury today who are about to launch the Viessmann Vitotwin CHP boiler.
Estimated install cost is £4950. Viessmann are one of Germany's premier manufacturing companies. Unlike the Baxi this boiler is a condensing boiler and can be installed by any qualified installer.
I believe it is going to be sold through Viessmann Direct also of Salisbury to installers and the nominated installer for the South of England is Alexandra Heating Services Ltd
More information will be available soon or try their web site
ahs-heating .co .uk
At last an alternative to British Gas

Silent_Dancer

The last post looks like spam.

As a point of correction the Baxi is a condensing boiler otherwise it would be illegal to install. The Viessman Vitotwin uses the same Microgen stirling engine as the Baxi. http://www.propel-technology.com/Article__ViessmannandBDRThermeaincreasetheirshareinthecapitaloftheMicrogenEngineCorporation.aspx

Micro-CHP is in its infancy, is unre liable and does not make economic sense.

michaels

Do these units also work as a back up power supply in the case of power failure - that might be of interest given the news re lack of generating capacity in the UK within the next 3 years.

michaels

Ballpark maths

If every 6kwh of gas you burn when burning at 6kwh/hour gives you 1kwh of electricity and suppose the gas costs 20p and the elctricity is worth/saves 15p

Now suppose half your gas is burned at 6kw/h and the other half at higher rates.

£1200 annual gas consumption will produce a return of 1200 * 50% (% of burned gas that generates) * 75%(% of cost of gas returned via electricity) = £450

Assume a boiler life of 10 years and no additional servicing costs and 5% pa for financing, the breakeven additonal cost for the boiler needs to be about £3000. I recently had a viessman weather comp system boiler installed, the boiler and controls together were about 1200 quid (excluding installation). So I guess it would be worth it to pay up to about 4k for a CHP boiler if that included the extra installation costs/invertor etc and it was reliable...

Andy_WSM

michaels wrote: »

Do these units also work as a back up power supply in the case of power failure - that might be of interest given the news re lack of generating capacity in the UK within the next 3 years.

No, grid connected microgeneration in the UK must have "anti-islanding" which means in the event of a power failure all solar systems, small wind turbines, CHP boilers must disconnect themselves from the grid to prevent electrocution of any repair engineers locally who would assume that as they have switched off the grid the cables must be dead.

Silent_Dancer

michaels wrote: »

Do these units also work as a back up power supply in the case of power failure - that might be of interest given the news re lack of generating capacity in the UK within the next 3 years.

In addition to auto-islanding the unit needs an electricity supply to start.