While its not practical to run your whole house yet, I'm looking at a small system to run a few things off grid. Basically I'm building a small UPS without the inverter on the output side. Basically a small solar panel to charge a 12v battery which can then charge or power radios, flashlights, etc. This consolidates down batteries so I don't have to stock and rotate dozens of batteries for all my gear.

I didn't look at the photos that accompany the C/Net article I posted about yesterday, but I looked at them today and found an interesting comment on one photo. Looks like this particular company will also come out with a model that heats water instead of air later this year. I don't need a heater much where I live, but hot water is something we can all use daily. Another big plus for this product.

Again, thanks for tossing this out there.

I wonder if the thing could be Stand-Alone? So in other words if I throw the breaker at the pole outside of my house would it still be able to kick on & start heating the air (or water) & start producing electricity to keep the frig on until the power comes back on.

That would be a huge plus if it's true.

Doh! You're right. I hadn't thought of it that way.

Natural-gas powered doesn't mean it can run without any electricity. Just like my gas furnace. That's an excellent point to investigate for anyone wanting to live off the electric grid or thinking they will be immune to power outages.

at the other end of the spectrum you might find these interesting, they make (a little) electricity from waste heat.

http://www.varmaraf.is/engl/prod.htm


Lee