Saving Power

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30536, 3 September 1964, Page 16

Saving Power

Sir, —Many country people, before they could be connected to electric power, had to sign an annual guarantee. In actual fact this is calculated every three months; one cannot average out consumption over the full year. For the last threemonthly period I did not use the full amount 1 had guaranteed to buy, but still had to pay the power board for the power I had not used. One would be more encouraged to save power if, in addition to the cost of alternative fuel for heating, one did not have to pay hard cash for the power one never had.—Yours, O. B. STANFORD. Oaro, September 1, 1964. Sir, —Power shortages and fatal scalding accidents have a common cause—greedy electric water-heaters, which are (a) making housewives use more power than is necessary for their home hot-water needs, (b) draining storage lakes throughout the spring, summer and autumn months to leave only low-level reserves for high winter power demands, (c) overheating tap water to high temperatures so that fatal and serious scalding accidents can easily happen in almost every home. How long are- parents and commercial and industrial employers going to tolerate these unnecessary hazards in home and business? It needs only the applied New Zealand standard specification to incorporate the British standard temperature-control tests so that electric water heaters would no longer be “greedy" and therefore save substantial power, lake storage, and the lives and limbs of the increasing number of young and aged victims of scalding accidents.—Yours, etc., ' J. PATON BOYD. Charteris Bay, September 1, 1964.