This may be an obvious question, but here goes anyhow.
If you have two pulleys (different diameters) with infinitely strong bearings and shafts, does increasing the belt tension have any effect on the torque required to turn the system? I.e. Is a super tight belt is harder to turn than a weakly tensioned belt (assuming no belt slip in either case)?
Ignoring the cost and wear implications of doing this as increasing the tension will obviously wear out your belts and bearings significantly faster.
I've done a force balance, and it seems as though, no, everything balances out. If you increase the tension on a belt you're increasing the force on both sides and the torque on the pulley input seems to be independent of the belt tension. When the system is moving at a constant speed under a constant load, belt tension doesn't seem to factor in (again ignoring the loads on the bearings and shaft)
However from a practical point of view it seems to make intuitive sense that if you crank up the belt tension it'll be harder to turn them. Is my intuition wrong, or is there something I've over looked?