Note: said society is preindustrial and has ample access to flowing water, but not fossil fuels or radioactive deposits. It also has access to mountain hot springs, which I thought could also be used as “batteries” during times when streams freeze. This last point is what set him off.

He also really hates wind turbines.

  • BeamBrain [he/him]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
    14·
    5 days ago

    Steam … doesn’t … run off.

    I said stream runoff, not steam runoff :P

    If on the other hand, you just mean… unshunt a sluice of hotspring water to flow into watermill type machines… that might kind of work, but you would need a lot of hot spring water to replace an… entire river or large stream’s volume of water.

    If you mean the hotspring acts as an emergency resevoir, sure, ok that may actually work… but… that isn’t really a ‘battery’ in the more conventional sense of… an anode and cathode of some kind.

    This is what I mean, yeah. There are limitations in that there’s only so much water available, but it’s better than nothing, and the reserves can be replenished by spring meltwater.

    Also, a “battery” can more generally refer to any stored reserve of energy that can later be released. In specific, these hot springs would act as a gravity battery.

    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      11·
      5 days ago

      I said stream runoff, not steam runoff :P

      Oh fuck, I legit need glasses, my bad rofl.

      And yes, gravity battery is a legit term, it just isn’t part of most … colloquial conceptions of a battery.

      But you are correct, it would be an emergency gravity battery.

      I edited in more while you were typing this reply, but it seems you do mean pre-industrial, pre steam boilers.

      In that case, yes, this all checks out, the hot springs could function as an emergency reserve if some simple machines needed to churn…

      Presumably this society would… essentially time their preindustrial mfg activities to when the streams and rivers are flowing naturally, and essentially go into a kind of low activity / holiday break mode during the winter, and rely on a surplus from the warmer seasons.

      • BeamBrain [he/him]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
        10·
        5 days ago

        Presumably this society would… essentially time their preindustrial mfg activities to when the streams and rivers are flowing naturally, and essentially go into a kind of low activity / holiday break mode during the winter, and rely on a surplus from the warmer seasons.

        Got it in one!