[jambutty]

On the wireless the other evening a minister from the Energy Ministry was trying to make a case for the consumer not consuming so much electrical energy.

How come it’s always the consumer who has to bear the brunt of any cut backs?

Anyway this dork from the Energy Ministry reckons that if we didn’t put the TV, Video, DVD, Games Console, Digi-box on standby when not in use the energy consumption nation wide would decrease by some 20%. Don’t leave your wireless or TV on when you go out he opines. What and leave the burglars with nothing to watch or listen to whilst they ransack the house? That would never do, as it would most likely violate the burglar’s human rights.

If the Energy Ministry really wants the country to save on electricity he should de-electrify all the railways and city tram systems except for underground railways. We could then not only save on electricity usage but also lose a few power stations – the nuclear ones and still have enough power for all our needs, even some extravagant ones.

Without the electrified railways, trespassing kids or even careless workers would not get electrocuted. Surely that is reason enough to de-electrify the railways.

Before anyone thinks it, I am not hankering for the days of steam. The steam engine is notoriously inefficient, although it could be improved but sadly not enough to justify bringing the powerful stream engine back into service. Mind you it does have a character all of its own.

We could use the big Deltic Diesel electric engines to pull the carriages instead, like they used to, only this time using bio fuel.

As I recall the big Deltic Diesels were phased out because it was claimed that in winter the fuel turned to goo and became unusable. That is perfectly true, Diesel fuel does go all gooey in close to freezing temperatures. Was it not beyond the wit of the railway engineers to install some sort of system where the fuel would be kept at a working temperature? After all it’s not as if Diesel is quite as volatile as petrol. How come Diesel cars still run OK in winter? Don’t forget, the modern Diesel motor is much more efficient and environmentally friendly than its older counterpart. Also don’t forget that the cross country ‘sprints’ are Diesel driven although they don’t go charging around at 100 mph. They are still pretty nippy though.

Apart from saving energy there is another reason why we should not have electric trains. If there is a power cut for whatever reason, many miles of railway line revert to a parking lot. Nothing can move – no electricity. Not only can nothing move, in the winter there would be no heating and only emergency lighting from the batteries with limited life. Obviously a Diesel train would just keep on moving.

So that is my solution to the electricity ‘crisis’. Scrap the electric trains and replace them with bio fuel Diesels. A Diesel electric engine train would still lumber on at a sedate 100 mph, although they can go faster and pull more coaches than the electric engine.

And now a short lesson on generating electricity.

Generating electrical energy is not as efficient as the powers that be make out. A power station generates the electrical energy then it is transformed to a much higher voltage for transportation around the country in the National Grid. Then it is transformed down to a sub station and from there transformed down again for industrial and domestic use. When using a transformer to change the voltage from one value to another there are transformer losses in the region of at least 5%. Then there are the resistance losses in the power lines themselves.

No doubt some modern day electrician will correct me if I am wrong but I estimate that for every one kilowatt of power generated there is only 750 watts available for use in the home or factory. 25% is lost.