Capstone: CHP Diagnostics
Hands-on: diagnose eight CHP call-outs — dumped heat, spark spread, low-value export, fouled heat exchangers, short-cycling and the carbon case — then calculate, verify and prescribe the fix.
30 min read
You've learned how CHP turns one fuel into two useful outputs, why it must be sized and run to the heat demand, and how its economics and carbon case really work. This capstone puts you on site as the auditor — not to admire a humming engine, but to work out whether it's actually earning its keep, and to fix it when it isn't. The hard truth about CHP is that a unit can look perfectly healthy — high nameplate efficiency, running smoothly — and still be a poor investment. The faults here are rarely a broken machine; they're dumped heat, the wrong size, a closed spark spread, low-value export, or a carbon case that the grid has quietly overtaken.