Dwight, electricity usage really depends on the house.....where it's located, what it uses for heat, whether it has AC or not, etc.
I live in MD, and we use electricity for pretty much everything, so in winter and summer, usage is pretty high.....just got the bill, and we used 2800 kwh in December.
I checked vs. the GE savings calculator, and realistically, there are no savings.....even if you break even operationally, it does nothing to help pay for the capital and maintenance costs. And of course, the less electricity you use, the less attractive the fuel cell becomes. Are there really that many people out there willing to sink at least $3-5K (assuming Plug can get the cost down that much....plus installation costs) into something with no savings just to reduce emissions? And the design life is only 15 years, with two major component replacements in that timespan.
I can see if you're in a remote area perhaps, but you still need to be accessible for propane delivery, and you have the added cost of a storage tank to deal with. And I just don't believe that market is very large.
To me, residential level fuel cells just don't make economic sense......now maybe 1 fuel cell for a cluster of 20 houses together, that makes more sense to me. Or solar roofs, which could help meet peak demand....and of course don't use fossil fuels which fuel cells usually do.
KJ |
