Suitability
For a site to benefit, it will usually need to meet certain criteria:
- CHP is only cost-effective with long operating hours (i.e. ideally for at least 12 hours/day, 7 days/week) but in general, the greater the annual period of demand, the higher the cost savings.
- There should be reasonable confidence in the future demand for heat and power over the lifetime of the CHP plant, typically 10-15 years. However, packaged Micro-CHP units can usually be relocated.
- There must be an adequate supply of a suitable fuel.
Benefits of Micro-CHP
- It's a low carbon technology.
- Providing the site energy usage is sufficient, generating electricity locally using a CHP plant will normally be a cheaper than purchasing electricity from a conventional supplier.
- It increases security of supply, especially in remote locations or where the power supply can be interrupted.
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