What could 20 Decanters of Endless Water power?

[dkt0404]

Set into a fixed construction to ignore kickback, what could that water jet power?

It's 600 gallons of water around, 6000 per minute and 8,640,000‬ gallons a day.

Suffeciant power to do 20d4 damage within 30' every round.

[Nanashi]

A lot of things.

The problem is cleanup. Dumping a whole bunch of new water, especially without a waterway for it to go into, tends to fuck up ecosystems. The only ways to destroy water I know of off hand are sphere of annihilation (artifact) and a limited monster ability (Destroy Water), which depend on GM fiat (and can't do nearly enough destruction to offset the new water.

[Eldritch_Lord]

You don't need to destroy the water, just get rid of it.  A portal or precipitate breach spell can safely send the water elsewhere for days at a time, a gate or reality maelstrom cast at the bottom of a reservoir can get rid of a lot of water in a short time, and so on.  If those spells aren't available and you either own the land or can deal with anyone who would object, a bit of work with move earth can create an artificial river and some more work can create a canal, so one can both move the water produced elsewhere and provide a handy means of transporting whatever is being created with or consumed by the facility.

As far as what can be powered, 600 gallons per round is equivalent to .38 cubic meters per second of water flow, and according to this link, a hydroelectric dam with that much water flow and at least 6.6 feet of turbine surface can output a maximum of 5 kW of energy, or much more with more space and a bigger turbine.  So congratulations, you've basically got a room-sized hydroelectric power plant on your hands and can run anything that said plant's turbines could, which is...pretty much anything you can think of at a Medieval/Renaissance tech level.

[Samwise]

A whole lot of backshot watermills.
Followed by a whole lot more watermills downstream.
Pretty much a localized industrial revolution.
With the added benefit that it can be "anywhere", as opposed to "places with just the right kind of stream".

[dkt0404]

that's more detailed ideas than I can up with offhand. I'd thought of the earthen channel since that's more or less what a levy is. But not so much the full industrial application in detail like that.

What I came up with was simply crop irrigation downflow. By the time it made its way through the fields I think it was down to less than 500k gallons. assuming the fields took 10k each to irrigate like I was looking up.

Source for them is the handy Artificer class. Vastly cheaper.

[Samwise]

Oh, you also have a mine operation in your other thread.
So add hydraulic strip mining and elevators.

Water power is a major industrial tool. People overlook how relevant it is because it is pretty near obsolete these days, but it is a very ancient technology, with a huge potential and major work advantage once you start getting even middling level gearing.
The biggest problems are expense and suitable locations, with the two often complimenting each other.
Get enough people willing to do the labor and someone willing to invest the money and the payoff is huge until steam engines show up.

[Keldar]

That's about .016% the water throughput of Niagra Dam.

At the price of 20 Decanters of Endless water, you might as well spend the bit more and put a pair of portals in, both dealing with where the water goes (a closed loop) and giving you an absurd amount more water.  Pressure can be generated in the standard method of stepping the pipe diameter down.

[Keldar]

  I don't know what I was thinking, you only need a single Portal.  So its cheaper than using 12 Decanters of Endless Water for vastly more flow.

[Shogun37]

Take a large(ish) ship, mount two of them as low as you can, as close to the center as possible.  Instant waterjet. 
Fast cargo ship, inescapable pirate, or just a big fast yacht. 
Mount the rest on the main deck bulwark, and you have a handy way of dealing with the crew without damaging your new ship too badly.
Just don't forget to duck, when the DM throws his books at you.

[Endarire]

Jetpacks!  Many, many jetpacks!