3,673 kg of water falling over Niagara falls creates only 1 kWh.

To generate just 1 kilowatt hour which we waste without worrying or thinking, would require the water volume of 6 residential swimming pools to flow over a 1 meter drop through a generator in one hour!!!!

Many dictionaries define energy as “the capacity to do work”, and power as the rate at which energy is used.

Potential energy refers to the energy that an object has by virtue of its elevation above the earth and the effect of gravity pulling down on it.

Kinetic energy refers to the energy that an object has by virtue of is velocity.

Thermal energy refers to the energy that an object has which can be released by “burning” or oxidizing it.

Electrical energy, which we commonly use to power our homes and businesses, is based on the movement of electrons through a conductor.

When we convert one type of energy to another, we typically lose between 35% to 75% of the original energy as waste heat.

Therefore, creating electricity from burning coal or from harnessing the energy of a water fall (such as a hydro electric dam) requires about 4 units of energy going into the system for 1 unit of electricity being produced.

The watt is defined in most dictionaries as “a standard unit of measure for power, the SI derived unit of power, equal to one joule of energy per second”.

A joule is a huge amount of energy.

One liter of water weighs 1000g, or 2.2 pounds.

If 102g, which is 102ml of water is 1 meter off the ground it has a potential energy of 1 joule.

1 Watt is defined as 1 joule per second.

That means, assuming a 33% efficient conversion of potential energy to electrical energy, that 3 joules per second must be used to create 1 watt of electrical power.

This means that 306 ml, or 306g of water must flow every second over a height of 1 meter to create 1 watt of electricity.
This means that 1101 liters of water or 291 US gallons of water must flow every hour to create just 1 watt of electricity.

26,424, 6990 US gallons of water must flow over a 1 meter drop every day to create just 1 watt of electricity, or a total of 24 watt hours of electricity.

A 16 foot x 32 foot typical residential swimming pool holds approximately 17,000 US gallons, or 64,260 liters of water.

If ALL of the water from a typical swimming pool, 17,000 US gallons, 64,260 liters flowed down over a drop of 1 meter to drive an electric generator with a 33% efficiency, we could:

Turn on two 3.5W Unity(TM) brand LED Lights bulbs for over 24 hours.

Turn on a single 13 W compact fluorescent light bulb for 13.5 hours

Turn on a single 40 W bulb for 4.37 hours

Turn on a single 60 W bulb for 2.9 hours

Turn on a single 100 W light bulb for 1.7 hours

Turn on a single 500 W halogen “work light” for 20 minutes

Turn on your 1500 W hair dryer for 6.8 minutes

Turn on your 3000 W air conditioner for 3.4 minutes

Turn on your 8000 W clothes dryer for only 1.28 minutes

Replace your inefficient incandescent and your medium efficiency mercy filled compact fluorescent light bulbs with low cost, high efficiency LED Light bulbs and help create a better future and save money.

Visit Omachron Lighting Corporation for more information about LED light bulbs.

P. S. The sun provides us with an AMAZING amount of heat energy every day - 2 kWh of energy per day per square meter. This is a huge amount of energy and can be cost effectively harnessed.