Wall mounted CHP

20 July 2007

Ceres Power has designed and built an integrated, wall-mountable combined heat and power (CHP) demonstrator unit.

The technical achievement  represents an important milestone in the company’s residential CHP programme with British Gas. In 2005, the two companies signed an agreement to determine how a fuel cell developed by Ceres might be packaged into such a CHP unit, and the demonstrator is the result of that effort.

Ceres Power said that the company plans to target the wall-mountable design at residential mass markets in the UK and overseas. The integrated CHP unit is capable of generating electricity and all of the central heating and hot water requirements of a typical home, avoiding the need for a separate boiler, and so can address new build and replacement markets.

And it's claimed that, since the CHP Unit uses the same natural gas, water and electricity connections as a boiler, its is also easy to install.

Last month, the company secured a £0.5m Exceptional Development grant from SEEDA, the South East England Development Agency, to assist with the development and commissioning of fuel cell manufacturing equipment in its product facility, which is on track to begin this summer.

The product facility will enable Ceres to validate key fuel cell manufacturing processes prior to the company’s planned investment in a mass manufacturing plant in 2008.