Snow melt
Martin Holladay
| Posted in General Questions on
I live in the mountains of northern Vermont. This year we ended up with about 4 feet of very dense snow on the ground by March, and it began melting about a week ago. I protect my house from snow melt water with a series of plastic catch basins connected to buried 4-inch pipes. These lead to daylight below my house.
The one on the south side of my house is now running at 75 gallons per minute — I filled a 5-gallon bucket in 4 seconds at the daylight termination.
The one on the north side is a 6-inch pipe — I haven’t measured the flow rate yet.
If only we could send all this crystal-clear water to Uzbekistan…
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Replies
Looking at the floods near Montreal i bet you are glad you are in the mountains, not perched on the banks of a river.
Perhaps it’s time to look into some micro-hydro Martin, why let that 75GPM go to waste. How long do you think you’ll be seeing that flow rate?
I love streams. I have two on my property here which is one of my favorite things about this lot. There isn’t enough of a drop to extract any real energy out of either of the streams, but they are very pretty to look at.
Bill
My lot is bisected by a stream too. It's a wonderful wildlife corridor. The only downside is the bears that keep smashing my composter.
Bill / Zephyr,
One hundred and fifty years ago, our village had a water-powered sawmill that mostly operated during the spring snowmelt. The mill would saw lumber for 24 hours a day in April and early May, then go dormant until the following spring.
I have flow, but not a lot of head. The investment in hydropower equipment isn't worth it for my location -- everything will dry up in another 10 days or so.
I saw the river flood warnings for northern VT. There's a lot of snowpack there to melt this year. Have fun.
It does seem like a waste to throw away all that water though, doesn't it?
How about a snapshot of the snow Martin?
Patrick,
It's melting fast. Here are two photos I took this morning.
Thanks!
We had 7" new snow last week and yesterday was 70F. What a fantastic xc ski and ice climbing year. Take a cold shower while it lasts Martin:-)
That sounds like Colorado weather. Am I right?
Bill
72F and sunny yesterday in southern VT; condolences Martin...