What is Cogeneration?

Many homeowners are making the move to more efficient indoor comfort solutions. One of these is cogeneration. So what is it? It's a method of generating electricity and heat energy from the same equipment. When generating electricity, heat energy is a natural by product, and that energy can be used for other things like heating your home.

Cogeneration (or cogen) has been around since Edison setup the first commercial cogeneration system back in the 1800s. Now cogen is available for homeowners, and offers substantial energy savings. Plus, cogeneration is independent of the grid, which means you are not affected by power outages!

What Are The Savings?

The savings possible with a cogen system vary on the usage and installation type, but a residential system is said to be able to save the equivalent of 240 gallons of gasoline each year. That's way more than a hybrid vehicle!

Cogen is also called Combined Heat and Power (CHP) and is available to homeowners from companies like Freewatt®.

Not all of the savings are realized by the homeowner, but they are by the environment. What does that mean? When you receive electricity from the grid, you're only receiving about 35% of the generated energy -- the rest is lost in transit. When you generate electricity locally, this loss goes away which has a positive impact on the environment, but one must do the math and compare to electric rates to decipher actual savings.

Learn more by visiting what is cogeneration.