Yeah you are correct that it takes twice as much, but what you don't
get is that it takes no energy to "pull one tonne"
and twice nothing is still nothing.
Generators also turn with little mechanical resistance when there is no
electrical load connected. when you connect a electrical load the
mechanical load presented by the generator also increases.
Stepper mpotors (like you find inside junk inkjet printers and page
scanners) make neat little generators, get one, do some experiments.
I'm not an expert, but trust me generators are nasty things to deal
with. Peak loads, as with comercial generation is the main concern. Here
the mains power is dodgey and every block of units has a generator. To
provide enough power during peak times you need a large unit, which is
then not economical to run when loads are down. Daylight hours all you
are running are fridges and hot water. Night sees air-con, cooking and
almost every appliance the tenant can find to turn on. Not trying to
rain on your parade but this whole town runs on generators, sometimes
for weeks on end (2nd largest city in the country). The only guys that
benefit are the mechanics and sparkeys that make a killing on servicing
the noisy brutes.
--
Brad Leyden
6° 43.5816' S 146° 59.3097' E WGS84
To mail spam is really hot but please
reply to thread so all may benefit
(or laugh at my mistakes)
