RadioBanter - View Single Post - BTW Stevie were watch the news lately about NASA

October 9th 05, 05:19 AM

wrote:
Dave Heil wrote:

wrote:

Dave Heil wrote:

If you're talking about electrical energy, any of it which is
produced
but not consumed, is wasted energy. I can turn off my
appliances and
lights, but if no one else uses the electricity I'm not
using, it is wasted.

Dave,

Electricity supply doesn't work like that.

The production adjusts itself to the load. If the load
decreases, so
does production. There is no waste from reduced loading. In
fact, if
the load goes down enough, utilities shut down their least-
efficient
plants.

I accept your statements as fact, as far as they go.

They go pretty far.

However, if
electricity is generated and not consumed, it is wasted.

Where does it go? The utility doesn't put huge dummy loads on
line.

Actually, it does. They are in the form of transformers and wiring.
From what I've read, a little over 8% of generated power is wasted
regardless of the load. That allows no leeway for leakage. That's just
the waste built into the system. The conversion from mechanical to
electrical power is just a little over 41% efficient.

Generally, power is shifted to other parts of the grid if unneeded in
one area, so that it is used where there is demand. If locally
generated power was not connected to a grid, what would happen to
electricity generated, but not used? If my home generator is run at
full load, I might get eight hours of run time. If it is run at 50%
load, I might get only ten hours of run time from the same tank of fuel.
Doesn't this indicate that there is additional waste?

I don't know enough about controlling the total reactive component to
address it.

Dave K8MN