Design and analysis of an electric drive for a domestic scale CHP machine

Abstract

With escalating energy prices and increased pressure to reduce carbon emissions, the demand for new technologies that are more energy friendly has increased. The most common prime mover used for electricity generation is the internal combustion engine, which uses fuel (petrol or diesel) to rotate a shaft, which then rotates a magnetic field inside a coil to produce electricity. Despite the advances in recent years, the internal combustion engine still loses more than 60% of the energy from the fuel into heat losses in the surrounding air. Incentives support more and more homes to invest in greener technologies that generate electricity, one of the most popular is installing Photovoltaic panels. The concept is that electricity generation would be no longer centralized at the power station but distributed amongst the whole island. Despite this, because of the local seasons, while the energy yield during Summer is typically 150% of the energy requirement of a typical house, during Winter, only half the required energy is generated. This shows that using photovoltaic panels, a house can assist the National Grid during the summer season by supplying the grid with excess electricity it generated.