The Lazy Man’s Approach to 24 Hour Heat & Power

Lot’s of folks think that to get 24 hour heat and power you need to run 24 hours a day. Not only is this impractical, time consuming and just plain “no fun.” It’s not necessary. The Hotwatt philosophy to 24 hour heat and power is to convert a small amount of your wood waste into usable fuel gas to power engines, then store that heat  and electricity for use through the day. Did you know that most of the energy we make is just wasted as lost heat or line transmission losses? Wood, even waste wood is a resource. Why use more than you have to. We would like to see our customers using around 2 acres of their land to provide all of their heat and power needs for the entire year. Alder is a good crop if you are starting from scratch.

Pictured above is the Hotwatt coupled to a genset for power and a water heat storage tank to store waste heat. Behind the Hotwatt is a mobile battery pack for this demonstration.

So back to our lazy man approach.

1. One day a month you gather your branches, pallets, or other feedstock and get it prepared for the gasifier by sizing and drying it to spec. Bag it up and set it to the side. If you aren’t prepared to invest one day a month prepping your feedstock, then this technology might not be for you.
2. When you wake up in the morning you simply fill the Hotwatt with a load of wood, then press start. Pour yourself a cup of coffee and come back to start up the genset and go back to your day.
3. The Hotwatt powered genset will recharge your battery pack while the forced hot air heats your home. Perform your most load intensive tasks while the engine is running so that you don’t drain your batteries. The residual stored heat and power will be used throughout the day to maintain your comfort. After a few hours the system will shut off based on the timer settings.
4. In the evening you walk over to the unit and repeat step 2.(coffee optional) The house is then brought up to temperature again for the night and the batteries are again recharged.

By harvesting every scrap of energy stored in the wood you can use much less than you think. By running the engine around 4 hours per day you can greatly extend its life and lower your service costs and any noise.

With very little effort you are now in charge of your own grid. It’s operating at just above the cost of your time and it’s in balance with nature. Simple.

Please note that we sell only the Hotwatt and genset at this time. Batteries are easily purchased locally from an off-grid supplier and hot water storage tanks are available on the internet. Set-up costs should include a plumber and an electrician.

Thanks for reading!