Peter Lynn ARCHIVE
In 1988 Don Clucas began developing a Stirling engine powered combined heat and power unit (CHP) for his engineering PhD. Initially this project shared premises with and was supported by my kite business. The first design was intended for use in yachts, was heated by a diesel burner and generated direct current. This was soon joined by a gas-fired AC unit for domestic use.
By siting electrical generation in the home, exhaust heat can be used for water heating. In large power stations it is dumped. This enables in-home CHPs to match the overall efficiency of centralised generation.
In 1990, kite buggying and kite surfing took off exponentially, taking all my time and Don moved the project to Christchurch, first to the University and then to Southpower in Tuam Street when they came in as a sponsor.
The engine design soon settled to a 4 cylinder alpha layout with a wobble yoke crank (Don’s patent) but it wasn’t until 2000 that complete CHPs were ready for sale. Achieving reliability, solving combustion and bearing problems and working through the byzantine requirements to allow grid connection took an immense amount of time and money.
The DC unit for boats had good sales and the prospects for domestic CHPs looked to be excellent, especially in Europe where extensive subsidies were provided for green energy.
Unfortunately, these subsidies were withdrawn after the 2008 financial crisis and sales dropped to an unsustainable level. Demand for DC units for yachts remained solid but were insufficient to sustain the business. Mondragon, a Barcelona based home appliance conglomerate had already bought a share of the company and after the 2011 Christchurch earthquake they purchased the remainder and the operation moved to Spain (but seems to be inactive).
The total cost of the Whispergen development appears to have been a little over NZ$100 million.
Technically Whispergens were successful- they functioned as intended, were reliable and very quiet- but cost too much. In 2012 this unit sold for something like NZ$23,000- which was too expensive for a water heater that also generated 700watts of electricity. Sufficient volume may have enabled this cost to be reduced enough but was never achieved.
Peter Lynn for the Roger Mahan Heritage Centre
