Cost per wind

[colly0410]

When I first started working down Hucknall (sep 1969) they said it cost about 15 shillings to wind from surface to deep soft pit bottom (& vice versa) & 8 bob to main bright inset, still not sure if they were having me on or not. Approximately how many kilowatts did each wind use? I know this'll depend on depth & cage/skip weight. I expect Boulby's winders would be rather greedy..

[John]

Jan 12, 2013 15:36:18 GMT -5 colly0410 said:

When I first started working down Hucknall (sep 1969) they said it cost about 15 shillings to wind from surface to deep soft pit bottom (& vice versa) & 8 bob to main bright inset, still not sure if they were having me on or not. Approximately how many kilowatts did each wind use? I know this'll depend on depth & cage/skip weight. I expect Boulby's winders would be rather greedy..

Lot of factors involved, each pit would negotiate a contract with the local electricity authority, and take it from me, it was a lot less than you or I would pay per KwHr!!
Then costing of winds would be estimated at the HP of each winder.
Boulby's 7000HP rock winder would cost a fair bit per wind.
The ammeter used to "lock" at 6000amps in a wind initiate!!! Thats a lot of current!!
Again, I was told it to wind one man at Cotgrave in 1968 the cost was five pounds.
But winding costs involve maintenance, electricity, ropes, winding enginemans salary, onsetters and banksmans pay and other hidden costs.
I think each wind of Boulby's No2 winder, 3500HP was about 20 quid in 1978.
Not cheap running a modern underground mine!!

[colly0410]

Oh yeah,I never thought about rope wear, banksmans, onsetters & winders wages, ect. I think they were just talking about electricity cost per wind & I think it sounds about right, I feel guilty that I've been doubting them all these years.

[John]

When I say cost for one man, it should read per wind, was thinking of the many times I used to ride in and out by myself at Boulby, early starts, breakdowns in the rock shaft tipping gear, riding out early or late depending if I'd been called out to cover for sickness or absenteeism.

I never rode in or out alone at Cotgrave, but did witness single decking on order of the U/M, rather stupid when it made each wind more expensive, not to mention production lost due to we elecs and the fitters walking off the job...

[Wheldale]

When I was doing my onsetter training in SA. The winder showed us a clutching operation to move a cage from one level to another. This involved after moving the cage to the required level, brakes were fully applied and full power was applied to the drum. This was a safety test but cost 4000 Rand in 1998 for electric use. That was about 400 quid.

[colly0410]

There was an article on how the Nottingham tram works in the local paper a while ago. It explained how when the trams were slowing down or going downhill the motors became generators & fed the juice back to the 750 volts DC overhead line for other trams to use. If no other tram was pulling power at the time it went to the substation & was fed back into the 3 phase AC power grid & they got a rebate for it.

Did or do pit winders generate useful power when running unbalanced or slowing down?

[John]

Jan 14, 2013 9:08:39 GMT -5 colly0410 said:

There was an article on how the Nottingham tram works in the local paper a while ago. It explained how when the trams were slowing down or going downhill the motors became generators & fed the juice back to the 750 volts DC overhead line for other trams to use. If no other tram was pulling power at the time it went to the substation & was fed back into the 3 phase AC power grid & they got a rebate for it.

Did or do pit winders generate useful power when running unbalanced or slowing down?

It's used to brake the winder, called regenerative braking. Used on electric locos underground too, we used regen braking on the battery rail mounted personnel cars in Oz. The power the DC motor generates is passed through resistance banks putting a short on the armature causing a braking effect until the vehicle slows to a point where little power is generated. Saves wear and tear on brake linings.