Development: Cogen: Power to the people
Electricity 1000 times cheaper!
Every run of the gencar stores in golf cart batteries 100 amp-hours of electricity at 12 volts - 1.2 kilowatt-hours of energy.
This costs a dollar in gas to run the motor and a dollar in upkeep, or $1.66/ kilowatt-hour. If you count heat recovered in the water tank to equal electricity to run a water heater, it works out to about 25 cents a kilowatt-hour. This is well below some of the rates charged by electric companies in California recently.
An alkaline D-cell costs a dollar and gives half an amp-hour of current at 1.5 volts. This works out to $1300.00 a kilowatt-hour.
Even watching a little TV that gives a few hours service on 8 D-cells can take a homeless person broke. That and using a flashlight can go through $20 worth of batteries a week. With our system six or eight people can play their radios, watch a TV, run a little electric fan on summer nights, or have a light when they need it.