Water turbine energy won’t work in Cowichan
I started reading your leader, “Promising Energy”, thinking there was a joke somewhere, by the end it appeared to be quite serious.
Incidentally, I also read the CBC article referred to in your leader.
To be fair, the article did not stress the salient fact, that the water supply must be gravity fed, in other words it must come from a lake or reservoir at a higher elevation in order to provide the energy.
Just about all the water supply in the Cowichan Valley is pumped from aquifers into reservoirs situated at higher points. This provides adequate pressure to ensure it can flow to the faucets in our homes and be available for fire fighting.
Trying to recover this energy would be essentially self defeating.
In fact, in the past when water was not metered at the property line, it was illegal to place such a device (Francis turbine or pelton wheel) on your water supply line.
While you might be generating power for your home, the municipality would be expending electricity pumping water back into the reservoir. Perhaps a novel way to try claiming back your taxes, some might think.
Many current water regulations do not have this provision any longer as a homeowner would quickly discover that the savings in electricity would soon be offset by an increase in water consumption billing.
Hoping this provides some perspective.
Chris Graham
North Cowichan
