Replies to post #25672 on Cyclone Power Technologies, Inc. (fka CYPW)

[Tom Swift]

Buddy,

You make exactly the same point I have been making for years, generating your own power is not necessarily practical. It's hardly a new concept, how many of us grow our own cotton, spin thread, weave cloth and make our own clothes? Alexander Hamilton's report on manufactures back when the country was new made the point that productivity and efficiency often went up dramatically when the work is done in large lots.

While the cost of a central generating station is enormous, so is its output, on a cost per kW-hr basis it is hard to beat with any backyard effort. The reliability of the turbo expander and quality of the hardware also yields an unbeatable online percentage and minimum repair and operating costs. Then there is labor, a system generating multi-megawatts operates with a small staff while the backyard unit still needs one operator, a severe disadvantage in cost to benefit. Reliability is also a factor, most people own small gen sets because they provide fill in power on the rare moments when central power is lost ... and this is almost always due to local grid interruptions and not generating shortfalls. The small gen set is simply not capable of being available anything like the same percentage of the time, which raises an interesting issue. If people buy gen sets to cover their bets, what do they need to do to ensure 100 percent power delivery when working with a far less dependable backyard power source?

From a cost/benefit analysis the best way to process waste fuels is to find a way to use them as feedstocks in existing central powerplants and thereby offset some of the fuel costs. Otherwise it is probably cheaper to let the fuel sit in barrels and buy your power from the wire coming in from the backyard. Maybe photovoltaic panels will eventually make the grade as their "fuel" needs no collection or processing and there are zero mechanical parts; but we aren't there yet. Small local heat engines simply look impractical to me because they are competing with bigger, better, more reliable, efficient and durable central generating heat engines....