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Originally Posted by Daigoro
Been looking forward to this, and the wait was worthwhile.
A few idle questions:
Heat exchangers: Would piped hot air do the same trick? There's more thermal mass in water, of course, but building hot air flues might be easier to do across a large area, and could be retrofitted inside existing tunnels.
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The thermal mass and the ability to use gravity to get the water to the lowest and hottest points was why I focused on the water, but both air and water would likely be used in conjunction. Someone with more knowledge of thermodynamics is free to build off the idea. Having the source of cold water above the cities means that there doesn't have to be large vents lower down which suits my image of dwarven settlements. I was reading about how lakes affected the ground temperature when the idea was formed so using water has some measure of validity. Also the process may take many years to cool a large volume of rock. My personal take on it was several shafts filled with water that are drained at maybe one a year for maintenance and expansion. It also explains the lake at the mines of moria by the back door.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Daigoro
Sheep and wheat: I was expecting to see goats. Why are sheep preferable here? And likewise, that article on Tibetan agriculture suggested barley is best at higher altitudes. Not that I've read any further than that, but is it because barley is more suited to wide-open plateau growth? Barley, of course, lends itself to "dwarven" products such as ales and hard breads.
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Sheep and goats are very similar, some breeds of one species are for all intents and purposes closer to the other species. The main differences are dietary, sheep graze (pasture) better than goats while goats browse (trees) better than sheep and fat storage. There is no overwhelming advantage to having sheep but they have small benefits in the ability to be housed, rapid condition gain and reproduction in cold conditions. They have also been domesticated for slightly longer. If there is enough area to support two breeds then having both sheep and goats is likely.
With regards to wheat over barley, barley will dominate. Its just that wheat ended up with the lions share of the words devoted to it. I worked off 5000m of altitude for the terraced species and 3000m-4000m for the "Valleys".
Quote:
Originally Posted by Daigoro
One other thing-
Bats: Can they possibly be bred large enough to be milked?
SNIP
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Most animals that are milked by humans are over about 40kgs. The largest bat is 1.2 kgs so using chicken breeding as a baseline (1600% improvement in desired characteristics over 40 years (at TL 7 and 8)) 160-800 years of selective breeding while maintaining a population of 100,000+ animals. Or Magic.