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Pretty Pylons
http://www.x404.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=13742		 Page 1 of 2
Author:  Spreadie [ Mon May 23, 2011 5:10 pm ]
Post subject:  Pretty Pylons
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-13473408

I know it's silly, but I like how they each have a slightly different stance.
Author:  belchingmatt [ Mon May 23, 2011 5:16 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Pretty Pylons
Or we could just bury them underground.
Author:  Amnesia10 [ Mon May 23, 2011 5:26 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Pretty Pylons
belchingmatt wrote:
Or we could just bury them underground.

Well it is really expensive to do that and would be prohibatively impractical.
Author:  adidan [ Mon May 23, 2011 5:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Pretty Pylons
Amnesia10 wrote:
belchingmatt wrote:
Or we could just bury them underground.

Well it is really expensive to do that and would be prohibatively impractical.

But we'd never have to worry about them being knocked down or freezing up. Save some money that way.
Author:  rustybucket [ Mon May 23, 2011 7:42 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Pretty Pylons
adidan wrote:
Amnesia10 wrote:
belchingmatt wrote:
Or we could just bury them underground.

Well it is really expensive to do that and would be prohibatively impractical.

But we'd never have to worry about them being knocked down or freezing up. Save some money that way.

Instead we'd have to worry about:

  • the insulator perishing (for solid insulators)
  • the gas escaping (for gas tube systems)
  • how to navigate around the vast amount of often undocumented infrastructure that's already in the ground
  • how to route other services e.g. telephones that currently piggy-back the grid
  • what to do if you hit a feature of archaeological or historic interest
  • how to navigate around the difficult, unworkable ground eg. steep slopes, marshland, flood plains where large chunks of the network are currently sited
  • how to compensate the thousands of farmers whose fields would be dug up or unproductive for several years when they should contain crops or animals
  • what to do in delicate ecosystems e.g. moorland, fens that will take decades or centuries to recover
  • paying for CPOs on the myriad properties that would have to be demolished
  • how would this affect planning regulations?
  • what to do when you need to replace the cable
  • what to do when you need to increase capacity on a certain link
  • possible electro-magnetic effects on electrical systems nearby
  • each and every dozy twonk with access to a JCB, tractor, piledriver or shovel

To be honest the many billions it would cost sounds like a lot of money, time, destruction and effort to spend on a marginal improvement in efficiency and a massive reduction in flexibility. Besides which, an increase in local renewables and microgeneration should reduce the grid load, not increase it.

Can't see the point myself - especially not when we can't afford nurses, police or care assistants.
Author:  Amnesia10 [ Mon May 23, 2011 7:57 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Pretty Pylons
I had the idea some years ago of building a trench with all the utilities in so that entry could be via a man hole and no need to dig up the road again when one utility wanted to do maintenance. They could just enter the tunnel and do everything underground. It would cost more but since everthing could be using the same tunnel it could have benefits, certainly far fewer road works.
Author:  ProfessorF [ Mon May 23, 2011 8:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Pretty Pylons
That Nikolai Tesla - now there's a man with the right ideas.
Author:  forquare1 [ Mon May 23, 2011 8:33 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Pretty Pylons
What happens if they all come alive?
Author:  adidan [ Mon May 23, 2011 8:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Pretty Pylons
rustybucket wrote:
*snip* logic *snip*

You have to go and spoil it all with frakkin logical talk now don't you.

Jeez, can't even waffle sh!te anymore. :)
Author:  rustybucket [ Mon May 23, 2011 10:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Pretty Pylons
adidan wrote:
rustybucket wrote:
*snip* logic *snip*

You have to go and spoil it all with frakkin logical talk now don't you.

Jeez, can't even waffle sh!te anymore. :)

Yep - it's a bad habit. My brother says that he and I have a disability in that we both feel the need for logical coherence.

edit: just finished a huge row with my mother about the right to privacy. :oops:
Author:  Linux_User [ Mon May 23, 2011 11:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Pretty Pylons
I don't like the "pretty" pylons, especially the giant human shaped ones.

Standard ones FTW. :)
Author:  dogbert10 [ Tue May 24, 2011 6:45 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Pretty Pylons
Why not just build smaller "local" power stations, that way you'd need fewer pylons. you could build them next to landfill sites and combine them with a recycling plant to sort out all the combustible waste, plus methane from the stuff already buried.
Author:  adidan [ Tue May 24, 2011 7:09 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Pretty Pylons
rustybucket wrote:
just finished a huge row with my mother about the right to privacy. :oops:

I have to limit conversations with my mum, she reads the Fail and can't understand why people always mock it...
Author:  Amnesia10 [ Tue May 24, 2011 8:54 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Pretty Pylons
dogbert10 wrote:
Why not just build smaller "local" power stations, that way you'd need fewer pylons. you could build them next to landfill sites and combine them with a recycling plant to sort out all the combustible waste, plus methane from the stuff already buried.

I agree but too many NIMBY's plus these pylons are apparently for windfarms etc.
Author:  forquare1 [ Tue May 24, 2011 9:01 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Pretty Pylons
dogbert10 wrote:
Why not just build smaller "local" power stations, that way you'd need fewer pylons. you could build them next to landfill sites and combine them with a recycling plant to sort out all the combustible waste, plus methane from the stuff already buried.


Would smaller stations not be more inefficient?
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