WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Stanley]

Tiz, all evaporative cooling systems have two circuits, the closed circuit which is pumped through the pipes inside the tower which contains the liquid to be cooled and the open system fed from a reservoir in the bottom of the tower from which water is sprayed on the cooling coils and is cooled by evaporation as the air rushes through the tower driven by convection in the case of large cooling towers or fans in the case of smaller ones. It is this exposed water which is more likely to be infected and of course provides the mist or vapour that we see drifting away from them. There can be a further source of contamination in older air conditioning systems and bulk hot water tanks used in large buildings for supplying shower facilities. There have been cases of the spread of Legionella via these sources but this is separate from the towers themselves. Every fridge has a cooling system to cool the compressed refrigerant before it is allowed to expand again lowering the temperature to a very low level suitable for cooling even a freezer. These are only different in that they can be cooled by a simple exposed coils system because the temperature of the compressed refrigerant is so high. Every small air-conditioning unit has a car radiator type heat transfer system where air is supplied by a fan, exactly like the cooling system in the car. These work efficiently at high temperature differentials but the values in water cooled evaporative towers are far lower so they need the bigger heat sink of the reservoir of cooling water in the base which is open to the air. This is the place to inject the hypochlorite or similar germicide. As Hugh Pennington said, "It's not an Act of God. It's bad maintenance.".

[Bodger]

Stanley , i would beg to differ "all evaporative cooling systems have two circuits". I was involved in the plastics industry, most cooling towers used did'n thave a closed circuit for cooling, the warm water from the macinery was cascaded via gravity from the top of the tower through a honey comb plastic pack,wooden laths in the early days, the water being cooled by evaporation through forced draught by a fan, yes there was a secondary source, but only the make up water via a ball cockvalve, compensating for the evaporation.
Part of maintenance was the cleaning of the units during shut down, and in the last 30 yrs automatic water treatment had to be fitted, and testing was compulsory every month by an accredited source

[Stanley]

You're right of course Bodge, I should have made it clearer but most commercial coolers have the closed circuit for the coolant and the open evaporative supply for cooling the coils.

[Tizer]

Thanks lads, this is OG at its best! Heat transfer will feature even more in our lives as the climate gets warmer and we need more air conditioning, and as air source and ground source heat pumps become more widespread. I think a lot of `greenies' believe that these heat pumps are giving them completely free energy and with no CO2 emissions - they forget that electricity is needed to run them (albeit less than would be needed to give the same heat output in a simple `electric fire').

[Bodger]

One of the last companies i was involved with in injection moulding, the electric bill was on average £2500/week, most of this was absorbed in heating the machines initially, then adiabatic physics took over from the machine process melting the plastic, but of couse once the plastic in in the mould it has to be cooled before you can remove the part, so chillers and cooling towers come into play, and even on the coldest day we had large extractor fans removing heat form the factory du to the ammount of heat generated, there were 4 x 24 " dia fans, and the heat removed would have been ideal for hot houses. or could have been utilized elsewhere

[Tizer]

The North British Distillery in Edinburgh has shut down its cooling towers. BBC says "The Health and Safety Executive has served an improvement notice on the North British Distillery for alleged failures to adequately control the risk of legionella in one of its towers."

[Stanley]

I saw that report Tiz. Looks like the old story, someone not bothering to check the germicide injection was working. They'd certainly have a system because they are now compulsory. Most wasteful heat transfer utilising cooling towers I ever saw was a factory making a lot of wood waste and using it for heating the factory in winter. In summer they kept the boilers going to dispose of the wood but put the output through big cooling towers and discharged it to atmosphere. I suppose there was a good economic reason.....
We used condensers on the steam engines of course but no problem with bacteria building up as the cooling water was open circuit to the lodge and no mist was propagated. The feed water to the boilers was sterilised by the heat. Legionella and similar bacteria couldn't get to more than ambient levels. The big problem with the cooling towers with recirculating open cooling systems is that they couldn't have been better designed to capture Legionella and encourage them to multiply.
I was watching the shock horror news stories about the weather, including a forecast that it will be a wet summer, and I remembered a June day in I think about 1960 when I had to go to the East Riding for a load of hay and it snowed 6" deep round the Leeds Ring Road. Nothing new about freak weather.

[Tardis]

The use of the squirrel unit of measurement on Radio 4's Saturday Live

[Tizer]

The freak weather could get freakier...we are appraoching an El Nino phase when the Pacific Ocean gets warmer. The last La Nina phase (cooling) has dragged on for a long time and not left much breathing space in between. I've seen one prediction that it looks like being the warmest El Nino for 60 years.

[Stanley]

Not good news Tiz. The perturbation of the ocean currents is increasing and I often wonder whether, in the end, this will be the biggest single impact of climate change.

[Bodger]

Stanley, re

The perturbation of the ocean currents is increasing and I often wonder whether, in the end, this will be the biggest single impact of climate change.

We may have to resort to some of the old gadgets in the link, look under "obselete technology"
http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/

[Tizer]

Listened to a recording of a Costing the Earth radio programme about our water supply and the problems of moving water from one area to another in a drought. What they didn't discuss was how silly it seems to keep on wasting vast amounts of potable water on flushing loos, bathing, washing machines etc and even on non-food industrial use. We only need a small amount to be drinking quality and it might be better if we bought it in refillable or returnable bottles from the supermarket; then the piped water wouldn't need so much treatment and the pipes themselves wouldn't need to be up to drinking standard quality. We must spend a fortune raising water from `washing quality' to `drinking quality'. It would be interesting to see figures for how much it currently costs and compare these with the cost if we desalinated seawater. After all, they're always telling us that nowhere in Britain is more than 50 miles from the sea.

[Bodger]

Many years ago when my friends and i were into cycling, B&B £ 1/50 a night, a lot of the rooms had signs over the taps, "not for drinking,", that was 60 yrs ago, if you wanted water to drink it was in the kitchen.
Did plumbing change?, in my days all water was from tanks in the attic other than in the kitchen?. not a thing you urban dwellers will come across, we have a septic tank system, worked ok till the advent of dish washers, washing machines, detergent etc, luckily we have enough land, so we divert 99% water into the earth, only WC water goes into the septic tank.
By the way the EEC say we have to have our septic tank inspected at a cost o £ 250. 00,f" to conform to regulations" it's been working for 100 yrs., and not broke down yet, i refuse to pay, it's like having a bolt on the toilet door, so far nobody as stolen our sh-t

[Wendyf]

We are quite careful about the products we use that will then go into our septic tank. We have been here nearly 13 years and have never needed to have it emptied, it doesn't smell and sits happily at about the same level. What's this about having to have them inspected??? Man the barricades!!

[Stanley]

Tiz, sorry but I can't agree about lowering the quality of water in the mains and buying bottled water. I like my tap water! Also, I foresee certain problems in multiplication of bacteria if non potable water was used in washing machines on low temperature economy cycles. How about industrial and domestic food preparation? Imagine the infections you could get showering in non-potable water and breathing the mist in.
Wendy, I once lived with a septic tank and got severe bleach deprivation!
Bodge, when I was researching Waddington I found that the people who made the hydraulic ram that raised water to a reservoir for the village were still in business near Blackburn. I went to see them to get the details of the ram which they still had in their records and asked them how business was. They surprised me by saying it was better than ever. They were exporting the efficient 19th century technology to developing countries all over the world.

[Tardis]

Radio 4's analysis programme last night

Gave an open platform to an economist who saw the crash coming, and says that the UK has another Credit Crunch to come within the next two years.

His thoughts on the Euro zone were quite illuminating too

[Tardis]

email these people:

enerqiproject@lancashire.gov.uk

and if you help them with their bus service monitoring you might win a month's free bus travel, worth about £92 according to LCC

[Tardis]

The Barnoldswick Chamber of Trade is looking at raising it's profile and attracting new members.

The Chair is Barrie Matthews, who is also at the majestic church

Last night they got someone across from the Federation of Small Businesses, who extolled their free business banking and other services.

[Tizer]

Stanley, I wasn't suggesting the piped water got no treatment, only less treatment, but obviously it would all depend on whether the reduction made economic sense. I referred also to non-food industrial use - food production would need potable water but it often comes from boreholes. I agree about showering but for washing machines the present domestic rainwater harvesting systems already supply them with filtered water. Mind you, I'm not very convinced about the value of the current domestic rainwater harvesting systems and would like to see more development.

[Stanley]

I think the bottom line is that consumers have to be more aware of the need for water saving, be metered and perhaps have two tariffs, one for essential supplies and one for swimming pools, garden etc. Human nature being what it is the best conservation of resources will be most effectively done on price but in the process essential supplies must not suffer.
How lucky I am to have the sort of peculiar brain that allows me to enjoy writing an article a day for the BET. I'm enjoying building the stock pile up with a series on Salterforth village and they are flowing like warm Golden Syrup!

[Tardis]

On water meters, it is unfortunate that there is a profitable black market trade in water engineers bypassing meters whilst swimming pools and their ilk are refilled for a tidy sum of cash

[Tardis]

Remember the bit about the liver fluke in the mill race

Full marks to Cllr Tenant last night at the West Craven Area Committee who correctly identified that to actually have infection potential there had to be the snail present that carried the necessary larval stage of the fluke

Someone who knows what they are talking about!

[PanBiker]

Various side streets around the town centre are in the process of being resurfaced. I wonder if this activity will be extended to what must be one of the worst junctions in the district due to the uneven surface round the bend and at the junction of Skipton Road with Fernlea Avenue? It is more of a main thoroughfare and I would have thought merited some priority.

[Stanley]

Ian, there was a piece identifying the areas to be resurfaced in the BET last week. The only one I recognised was the footpath to Hollins Court beyond the footbridge out of Valley Gardens into Federation Street. Funny thing is that one was done a few weeks ago.
The People of Kirkham getting together and giving a decent burial to a newly born child found in a local beck. I was thinking about the poor mother who had been driven to this. I hope they find her and help her.
The five men in court at Burnley accused of grooming and rape. This will not to race relations any good.....

[Tizer]

US Republican candidate Mitt Romney's ancestors came from northern England and were converted to Mormons at Penwortham, according to a BBC web page. Even if you're not interested in Romney the page has a lot of interesting historical information about the Preston area...

Mitt Romney's Mormon roots in northern England
By Cordelia Hebblethwaite BBC News, Preston, 13 June 2012
It's well-known that Republican contender for the US presidency Mitt Romney is a Mormon - but not that his family was converted in England. He doesn't mention it on the campaign trail, but his great-great-grandfather, a Preston carpenter, became one of the first British Mormons, 175 years ago. "This is the spot - this is where it all started," says historian Aidan Turner-Bishop pointing down to a small, unmarked and unprepossessing, shingle beach. The sun is just starting to set over the banks of the River Ribble in Preston. The birds are singing gently. It is an idyllic scene.

"On a hot summer's day, this is where the kids come to play," says Turner-Bishop. This is the site where the very first Mormon baptisms outside North America took place. And it is almost certainly the spot where the Romney family were baptised into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) in the late 1830s, at the start of a wave of 19th Century Mormon conversions in England. "In order to compete to be the first people to be baptised, some of the men began to run, to race each other, down to the little beach… People were just carried away by the sheer excitement of it," says Turner-Bishop. "There would be crowds on top of the bridge and crowds around here. It was a big event. And they'd stand and watch these exciting, unusual American evangelists baptise people in full immersion in the waters of the river."
More here LINK