Re:Salt Water Dimmers
by mech975 on Wednesday October 02, 2024 @10:20PM
(#41726726)
At a previous job we manufactured fairly large trailer-mounted generators. During design engineering testing, you would want to power a load with the generator to check performance. The test load we had was a giant resistor bank, in a pallet-sized enclosure about 4 feet tall, with fans for active cooling of the oodles of resistance heat being put off by it. I talked to one of the electrical engineers about how ludicrous this device was, and he said that we used to use something even weirder. A giant tank filled with salt water (can't remember for sure if they were using NaCl or a different electrolyte) with probes just dumping all that current right into the water. Wish I had seen it.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
At a previous job, we ran a nuclear reactor but didn't want much electricity, so we'd use the power to turn a giant water wheel with all the surplus steam...
Is that a euphemism for driving a sub around?
or a carrier
Re:Salt Water Dimmers
by dredmorbius on Thursday October 03, 2024 @12:13AM
(#41727329)
In which case they might have mentioned the nuclear-powered slingshots.
No, the water wheel ("water brake", they called it) was real, it was for wasting energy, and we didn't go anywhere; but also, yes, it was a submarine, in form, albeit not exactly in function.
Re:Salt Water Dimmers
by dredmorbius on Wednesday October 09, 2024 @09:49AM
(#41787966)
If you can reveal, what sort of facility was this, and in what sector (e.g., business, research, government, military, NGO)?
I'm not sure what's ludicrous about this setup though? For testing you want the simplest possible setup - which a giant resistor bank really is. Power is power when you run it through simple resistance - no AC shenanigans will hide effects.
The electrolysis rig seems a bit ridiculous, since it generates a bunch of flammable gas you have to deal with. A big resistive load for testing stuff seems pretty normal though.
Not just flammable hydrogen gas — you are likely to generate chlorine gas, potentially in large amounts.
True, if it's very salty.
It's not electrolysis, it's more like electrode boiling.
Re:Salt Water Dimmers
by cellularmitosis on Thursday October 03, 2024 @02:25AM
(#41727831)
It is absolutely electrolysis. You can try it yourself with a battery and dish of water.
It's absolutely not.
I already tried it myself with a 3MW generator and a giant tank of saltwater.
The fun part: it does both!
I see your point, though we barely ever had to top the tank up with water or salt. The amount of gas created was minimal, at least with our setup - admittedly not as fancy as a battery and a dish of water ;)
I've worked in a rail yard where we overhauled locomotive engine & traction alternator sets, which were generating upwards of 3.3MW so we used a big saltwater resistor as a load bank.
It was the only bit of equipment that scared me, because the plates and tank were fairly rusty. I was waiting for it to let go midway through a test and flood the place with boiling salty water (and who knows what chaos the suddenly unloaded generator would have caused)