Don’t talk about the voltage.

Yesterday I wrote a pretty awful post about why I didn’t consider the government’s decision to encourage owners of diesel generators to prop up the National grid, in times of power shortage.

I spent most of that post banging on about frequency and load sharing. I should have added another factor  I think it’s a laughable idea.

Voltage.

In our houses in the UK the standard voltage used is 230V. This is a very low voltage in the great scheme of things but it is reasonably safe. If you touch an exposed wire it will make you remember it but unlikely to come to harm from it.

Not so the National Grid. This has sections that transmit at 400 kV (400,000 V). The simple reasoning is the formula taught in basic science classes. E=IR, where E is the voltage, I is current, and R is resistance. Even the best conductors in normal use today have their limitations. It would be infeasible to try and transfer electrical energy at household voltage. The cables would have to be huge in diameter. Therefore the high voltages.

Now in the  Hospital, public building, brothel, etc, it is not realistic to generate at those sort of voltages as there is only a very short transmission distance. Therefore it is most likely that they will generate at 440V(I’m going with my own experience here) for heavy power usage such as industrial heating systems and pumps. For general use it will be transformed down to 230V.

In short you have two totally incompatible voltages which you have to tie together with transformers and their losses, to make a back feed situation work.

Can it work? you tell me.

*Bought more candles*

I may post about the death and destruction that could be wrought.

Power bollocks

I was just reading Christopher Booker’s  article this morning in the Telegraph this morning.

We could soon be paying billions for this wind back-up

In it he explains the Bizarre thinking that to stop the lights going out the government is going to use all the backup diesel generators that exist in hospitals and other places that need to have an emergency supply of electricity.

The answer National Grid has come up with, only made possible by the latest computer technology and “cloud software”, is to hook up thousands of diesel generators, remotely controlled by the grid, to provide almost instantly available back-up for when the wind drops.

Personally speaking as an engineer that has spent most of his working life working with diesel generators, I think it is a disaster waiting to happen.

I don’t see how it could work.

1. All types of generators have a different “Characteristic”. Steam turbine generators, gas turbine generators, and diesel generators all respond differently to changes in load. All these generators have to supply power within a narrow frequency band either side of the grid frequency of 50 Hz. Usually within a maximum of + or - 3 Hz. How is your local hospital’s 1 Mw diesel set going to respond to the response of  a 2 Gw gas turbine. The danger is that unless the load sharing is precise (involving electronic governors these days), you could end up with a gas turbine actually “motoring” a diesel generator. In other words the DG is being driven electrically against it’s will. NOT A GOOD THING. It usually ends up with large lumps of diesel engine deciding to spread it’s self into it’s component parts. (I know. I walked past such a generator 5 seconds before it did it.). That’s your hospital fucked in the middle of winter when the wind turbines are not working.

2. All emergency generators are just that. They are arranged that if the mains power fails they are an autonomous entity.Just there to  supply the Hospital, public building, brothel, etc. Usually they are arranged that if the main supply circuit breaker drops out due to mains failure, the standby diesel generator will start and then close it’s emergency breaker onto the needed system.. QED. For safety reasons, the mains supply breaker and the emergency supply breaker are interlocked so that neither can be closed simultaneously. I’d love to know how they are going to load share between their patients and the grid?

3. As above. Does the hospital, if the rules change on electrical safety, save it’s patients or sell it’s Kws to the grid?

I feel that this is a cynical ploy by a government that has lost the plot on energy production to try and calm the average citizen, that the lights will remain on.

I have candles.

Did you know?

Today is……….

International Beer Day.

Apparently.

CACC

I was just watching the local news on the idiot box tonight and note that they are still giving undue prominence to the anti fracking protestors at Balcombe in Sussex. Now I know that quite a few of those protestors are from a group called The Campaign Against Climate Change (CACC).  As far as I can see this group are made up from left wing sociologists, green party activists, and naive idiots who believe that only they know what's best.

When you visit their site and read their "Who we are" page, you find, shock horror, that the most of them have little or no science training (WTF is a PGSE in Science, when it's at home?)
Of course though, all the guardian readers that flock to this blog  (Spits) will be overjoyed to find the Honorary chairman is their very own, *drum roll*, George Monbiot. When you look at the rest it's a gaggle of a mediocrity of people who have jumped onto a band wagon, and don't realise the wheels are falling off fast.

I really despair when I see people like this who don't seem to inhabit the real world that the rest of us live in, being so bloody stupid. If they want to live in yurts, eat tofu, and die of the cold in the winter, then they may do so. What I want is an energy supply that is reliable, affordable, and relatively clean. By achieving that we will enable our kids, and grand kids to survive. If we don't innovate, we die.

(Don't fucking dare mention bird mincers or solar panels).



Climate twats

That’ll work then

Cheshire East council thinks that it can go it alone by imposing minimum pricing on booze.

CHESHIRE East Council looks set to go ahead with its plans to crack down on cheap booze despite the Government U-turn.

At the council’s cabinet meeting last month members agreed to endorse the principle of introducing a minimum unit price for alcohol – something David Cameron last year appeared keen on introducing nationally.

Cheshire East looks set to press ahead with its plans – despite the Government’s apparent change of heart earlier this month.

Cheshire East is designated by the “G” on the map below. Now if I had a supermarket in “E”, Kidsgrove, I’d be rubbing my hands with glee.

I’m seriously thinking of investing in a white van, and just sit over the boarder.

Fuckwits, the lot of them.

Driving abroad can be hazardous to your health

Just a selection of incredible traffic accidents in Russia. It would seem that the driving test is not very strict.

 

And I thought the M25 was bad……….

WHO DOES WHAT

A man and his wife were having an argument about who
should brew the coffee each morning.

The wife said, 'You should do it because you get up first,
and then we don't have to wait as long to get our coffee.

The husband said, 'You are in charge of cooking around here and
you should do it, because that is your job, and I can just wait for my coffee.'

Wife replies, 'No, you should do it, and besides, it is in the Bible that the man should do the coffee.'

Husband replies, 'I can't believe that, show me.'

So she fetched the Bible, and opened the New Testament and showed him at the top of several pages, that it indeed says ... 'HEBREWS'

How to Calm a Man

A woman goes to the Doctor, worried about her husband's temper.

The Doctor asks: "What's the problem?

The woman says: "Doctor, I don't know what to do. Every day my husband seems to lose his temper for no reason, and it scares me."

The Doctor says: "I have a cure for that. When it seems that your husband is getting angry, just take a glass of water and start swishing it in your mouth. Just swish and swish but don't swallow it until he either leaves the room or goes to bed and falls asleep."

Two weeks later the woman comes back to the doctor, looking fresh and reborn.
The woman says: "Doctor that was a brilliant idea! Every time my husband started losing it, I swished with water. I swished and swished, and he calmed right down! How does a glass of water do that?"

The Doctor says: "The water itself does nothing. It's keeping your mouth shut that does the trick...."

I’m so going to get it in the neck from my female relatives now.

My Civic duty done.

An E Mail I sent today.

Dear Lingfield Parish Council.

It would  seem you have a problem of the rodent variety. Two weeks ago whilst my grandson and I were feeding your ducks, I became aware of something that appeared not quite right.

At the time I was seated on the golden jubilee bench (How do I know that? Because it's got a plaque on it), when out of the corner of my eye I spotted something unusual.

On my right, coming from the direction of the Co-Op, something was scuttling at speed towards us. My first thought was that it was a Kamikaze duck attempting a flanking movement to snatch our bread. It was not till the last moment I realised this "Duck" had a long narrow tail, as it took a sharp left turn next to the bench and leapt into the bush behind.

Ratty. The Sequel.

Today I saw, what I presume was the same animal of a rodent persuasion, leaping out of the bush into the green rubbish bin adjacent to the bench. As I approached it removed itself by jumping back into the bush. My Grandson and I, being professional cowards moved to the other bench. Also I didn't want ratty to pounce on my expensive Magnum ice cream.

I hope this E-mail is of use to you.

Regards

A Member of Lingfield another parish council.

PS. Do I now qualify for David Cameron’s “Big Society”?

*Preens*

Warm enough?

The temperature peeked at 33 deg C in my neck of the woods today. My thermometer is still indicating 30 deg C now.

Of course it won’t stay like that will it?

My model says so.