On Tue, 17 Aug 2010 00:22:51 +0100, Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember "The Medway Handyman"
saying something like:

We also went to a working water mill. Incredibly efficient,

Err, no. I had charge of a watermill a few years back and basically it
would have been simpler and cheaper to hoik a genset in than try to
harvest usable power from the bloody thing. For some applications, in
some circumstances, the generated mill power is usable - for heating,
etc. Not really much good for proper mains, not without a deal of
expensive engineering.


much better
that those windmills. Wonder why we don't use more local hydro electric
schemes?

Hydro schemes need a big setup to work properly.

Not that I'm saying it's efficient, but Rudyard Kipling put in a genset
in a tiny water mill in about 1903 or so. It was either the wheel or the
genset - not enough water for both. The wheel still runs and the genset
has been restored.

http://www.solarnavigator.net/histor...mill_house.htm

He got advice from a mate of his who was apparently involved with the old
Aswan dam!

--
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