Patent ID: 7459799

Claim:
A domestic power system to provide the heat and at least a portion of the electrical power requirements in a domestic dwelling, the domestic dwelling having a plurality of electricity consuming devices each of which have an electrical power requirement, the system comprising: a micro-cogeneration unit, operable both in the presence and absence of a main power supply, the micro-cogeneration unit comprising a combustible fuel supply, and arranged to produce an electrical power output and a heat output; a grid connector, for connecting the domestic power system to a main power supply; a detector, for detecting interruption of the main power supply; and a system controller arranged to connect the power output from the micro-cogeneration to all of the plurality of electricity consuming devices when the main power supply is present and to connect the power output from the micro-cogeneration to a selected subset of the plurality of electricity consuming devices having a lower electrical power demand than the total domestic power requirement, so as to provide electrical backup power thereto in the absence of main power, when the detector detects interruption of the main power supply.