Generating your own electricity at home using cogeneration

Imagine generating your own electricity at home using natural gas. In Japan, Honda has introduced cogeneration units for homes. These units run on natural gas to generate electricity and also make use of the exhaust heat to provide hot water. The cogeneration unit is highly energy efficient and reduces carbon emissions.

Currently in Singapore, electricity is generated at the power plants and transmitted to homes, leading to some energy loss due to the transmission. If we could generate electricity at our own homes using the cogeneration units, it could reduce those energy loss. But we also have to consider the energy spent to transport natural gas to homes and compare it with the reduction in energy loss to assess whether it is energy efficient to make the switch.

Read more about Honda’s cogeneration units from the Honda website or from the Japan for Sustainability article below. 

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50,000 Honda Residential Cogeneration Units Installed in Japan

At a press conference on July 18, 2007, Mr. Takeo Fukui, president and CEO of Honda Motor Co., Ltd., stated that about 50,000 Honda compact residential-use cogeneration units have been installed in Japan since they were first put on the market in 2003. He also noted that the company started selling the cogenerators in the United States in March 2007. Honda has been stepping up its environmental efforts as one of three strategies for future growth. Promoting the cogeneration unit is part of its commitment to the environment.

Honda cogeneration units run on natural gas and generate electricity for home use while utilizing the exhaust heat from the gas engine to provide hot water. The unit has been marketed through gas utility companies in Japan under the brand name “ECOWILL.” According to data released by Honda the day before the press conference, the total energy efficiency of the unit is as high as 85.5 percent. Installation of the 50,000 ECOWILL units has potentially reduced carbon dioxide emissions by about 42,000 tons per year, equivalent to the amount that would be absorbed by three million trees.

In the U.S., the system is called “Freewatt,” includes the Honda cogeneration unit and exhaust-heat hot-water heater and is being sold by American Honda Motor Co., Inc. and Climate Energy, LLC.

Source credit: Japan for Sustainability.

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