TME has a ReAq lvl 4 guideline for instantly transporting water 5 paces.
Now lets say we build a closed system where water is teleported from a large pool and 5 paces up where it is collected and led to a water wheel before ending up bacck in the pool.
We'll add +1 for part so that we can controll the amount of water being teleported and not teleport all of the water at the same time.
Teleport is an instant effect, but for cosmetic purposes lets just say that putting the effect into an item with unlimited uses we will have what is in effect a water portal where water will run into the pool, vanish from the bottom and magically appear above the water wheel and repeat forever.
I guess it would be simpler to use a ReAq effect to have the water flow up and then let nature take over once it passes the top and is ready to rund down over the water wheel again, but the thought of having water just pouring out of thin air appeals to me.
Is there aany problem with this except that the water will start warping as it is under an effect that for all practical purposes are constant?
Seems pretty reasonable. Base 4, +1 touch, +1 part = level 10, +10 for uses, +3 for environmental trigger (assuming your storyguide allows diameter or momentary 'triggers') for a final level of 23.
The problems I can think of are evaporation and warping. Of course, I'm pretty tired, so I probably missed something.
realistically the water would not be under constant effect- depending on the quantity teleported and the drain rate of the container it is being teleported to you could easily get away with it being teleported twice a day.
I've been thinking more about this and wondered how much water would need to be created by CrAq to power a water wheel.
There are CrAq guidelines for creating springs, not just base individuals of water.
Lvl 4 - Create a spring with a low rate of flow.
Lvl 5 - Create a spring with a high rate of flow.
Lvl 10 - Create a geyser with a very high rate of flow.
Old Faithfull puts out around 100-150 liters per second during an eruption so we might use that as a basis for the very hig rate of flow guideline.
Has anyone put any thought into what these flow rates would be?
If all you need is to power a waterwheel, a spring with a high rate of flow should be all you'd ever need, I think. This isn't GURPS, so I'm not really going to worry about how many centiliters/second that means.
power=head x flow, so even a low flow rate positioned high enough up will provide a lot of power. As mentioned this isn't GURPs and doesn't even use real world physics, but Aristotilian physics. Basically you just need to know what you want to do with the water wheel, a rough idea what the other requirements are, and then make a roll against either a professional ability or maybe against artes liberales to handle basic calculations (for example int+relevant craft ability with a target of 6 or int+artes liberales with a target of 12) based on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_(hydrology) I would qualify a low flow spring as up to a gallon per minute, a medium flow as up to 100 gallons per minute, high flow as up to 10 cubic feet per minute, with extra magnitudes boosting output from there (one cubic foot of water per second is just under 400 gallons per minute- close enough for game purposes.
So a low flow spring of 1 gallon per minute falling 10 feet would produce about 6.8 KW times the efficiency of the machine (given the era probably around 15% for a bit over 1 KW of power. or 1.3 HP so a bit more power than a horse harnessed to a wheel. Power increases linearly with both head and flow.
I think your hp calculation is correct, but you're very off on how big a cubic foot is. A cubic foot is about 7.5 gallons. A cubic yard is closer to what you're talking about, which is a little more than 200 gallons. Seemed like something important to nitpick there.
I'm thinking of adapting this to my saga now. I just have to convince our CrAq specialist to make the item or spell that makes an artificial waterfall.