Water-heating

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31235, 6 December 1966, Page 18

Water-heating

Sir, —Is the Government really anxious to keep down the cost of living? If so, it should either allow the import of English “quick recovery” domestic hot water elements, or have them manufactured here under licence. We formerly had a 1000-unit “quick recovery” element in our 30 gallon cylinder. If switched on at 6 a.m., the water was hot at 8 a.m. After 30 years’ use, it had to be replaced. A “quick recovery” element not being procurable owing to import restrictions, we have a locally-made element installed, which has to be switched on 24 hours a day to ensure the same supply of hot water as we had before. The two-monthly account is now twice what it used to be and I understand

power charges are to rise again in April.—Yours, etc., HARD-UP HOUSEWIFE. November 30, 1966. [The general manager of the M.E.D. (Mr J. P. Shelley) replies: “No licence is necessary to manufacture quickrecovery elements in New Zealand, and in fact they were manufactured in Christchurch over 30 years ago and were extensively used. They have been discarded because, although the quick-recovery element supplied hot water at the draw-off point more rapidly, it left the remainder of the water in the cylinder at a correspondingly lower temperature. They were useful if small quantities of water were required at frequent intervals, but they would not produce hot water up to the full capacity of the cylinder. Incidentally, all types of element convert 100 per cent of the electricity used into hot water. There has been no increase in tariffs in the M.E.D. area since 1961, and so any larger bills are due to more use of electrical equipment.”]