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Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
Leo Simpson, B.Bus.
Editor
Greg Swain, B.Sc.(Hons.)
PUBLISHER'S LETTER
Technical Staff
John Clarke, B.E.(Elec.)
Robert Flynn
When you waste water,
you waste electricity too
Reader Services
Ann Jenkinson
By the time you read this, perhaps
the drought which has affected so
much of eastern Australia will have
begun to break. Let us hope so. If you
live in the city, the drought probably
has not affected you much and you
may be sick of hearing about the need
to conserve water. But there is another
aspect to water usage that you never
hear about in the media and that is
the huge amount of energy required
to bring the water to us.
Advertising Enquiries
Leo Simpson
Phone (02) 979 5644
Regular Contributors
Brendan Akhurst
Garry Cratt, VK2YBX
Marque Crozman, VK2ZLZ
Julian Edgar, Dip.T.(Sec.), B.Ed
John Hill
Jim Lawler, MTETIA
Philip Watson, MIREE, VK2ZPW
Jim Yalden, VK2YGY
Bob Young
Photography
Stuart Bryce
Forgetting for a moment the enormous investment in dams, pipelines and
reservoirs, think about all the pumps which are needed to bring the water
to your kitchen and bathroom taps. Again, if you live in a major city, the
chances are that your water has been pumped though hundreds and maybe
even thousands of kilometres of piping. Pumps use a lot of electricity, as
anyone who has a swimming pool will be well aware of.
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As well as the need for pumping and filtering, the water supply needs
chlorine added to it to kill bacteria and algae. When you consider the overall
consumption of water in Australia, the amount of chlorine required is huge.
Where does all that chlorine come from? It is produced by the electrolytic
dissociation of common salt, sodium chloride, and again, this consumes lots
of electricity. Some of that chlorine injected into the water supply eventually
ends up in the upper atmosphere where it plays havoc with the ozone layer.
Printing: Macquarie Print, Dubbo,
NSW.
After you have used the water, most of it goes into the sewers and again
it must be pumped to sewage plants for treatment. Much of that treatment
involves lots of pumps and inevitably, it involves further chlorination. After that, the waste water it is pumped into rivers or the sea. So while you
don’t think about it, the biggest cost of water is the charge for electricity in
processing and transporting it to you and then taking the waste water away.
Distribution: Network Distribution
Company.
Subscription rates: $49 per year
in Australia. For overseas rates, see
the subscription page in this issue.
Editorial & advertising offices:
Unit 34, 1-3 Jubilee Avenue, Warrie
wood, NSW 2102. Postal address:
PO Box 139, Collaroy Beach, NSW
2097. Phone (02) 979 5644. Fax
(02) 979 6503.
That means that even if Australia had plentiful supplies of water, we
should not waste it because so much electricity is required to bring it to
us. Most of that electricity will have been generated by coal burning power
stations. Inevitably, when you have a glass of water, you are consuming
coal, or oil, or natural gas.
Think about that next time you turn on a tap.
Leo Simpson
ISSN 1030-2662
WARNING!
SILICON CHIP magazine regularly describes projects which employ a mains power supply or produce high voltage. All such projects should
be considered dangerous or even lethal if not used safely. Readers are warned that high voltage wiring should be carried out according to the
instructions in the articles. When working on these projects use extreme care to ensure that you do not accidentally come into contact with
mains AC voltages or high voltage DC. If you are not confident about working with projects employing mains voltages or other high voltages,
you are advised not to attempt work on them. Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd disclaims any liability for damages should anyone be killed
or injured while working on a project or circuit described in any issue of SILICON CHIP magazine. Devices or circuits described in SILICON
CHIP may be covered by patents. SILICON CHIP disclaims any liability for the infringement of such patents by the manufacturing or selling of
any such equipment. SILICON CHIP also disclaims any liability for projects which are used in such a way as to infringe relevant government
regulations and by-laws.
Advertisers are warned that they are responsible for the content of all advertisements and that they must conform to the Trade Practices Act
1974 or as subsequently amended and to any governmental regulations which are applicable.
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