The nearby town of Bellefonte, PA features the Gamble Mill, anold mill originally used to grind grain into flour - 1800shydropower. The mill dam, pond, millrace and tail race are still inplace and functional. The mill building is now a restaurant, butthe all the water-works are owned by the borough. The municipalmanager wants to put the system back to work as a smallhydroelectric system to help supply the borough\'s electricity. Doesthis idea make sense? How much power could this system produce?

The height difference between the mill race and the tailrace isten feet (3 meters), and the stream can supply, on average, 100cubic feet of water per second (2.8 m^3 / sec). The planned turbinewould be 80% efficient under those conditions. Power (watts) =density of water * height * flow rate * acceleration of gravity *coefficient of efficiency

Don\'t round your answers.

How many watts?

At $0.07 per kWh, what is this energy worth per day?

The system will cost $60,000 to install. How many years will ittake to pay off the system from the savings?

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

To determine if the idea of using the Gamble Mill as a small hydroelectric system makes sense and to ... View the full answer