ELECTRICITY BILLS

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 36, 11 August 1927, Page 12

ELECTRICITY BILLS

HUTT VALLEY AND CITY

SMALL MAN'S ACCOUNT

COST OP RADIATORS

Consumers of electrical power in the | Hutt Valley Power Board's area still await the explanation promised by the board of figures published in the "Evening Post" some time ago, showing that the board's customers pay much more heavily than do those who use electricity for household purposes in the city. Particularly was it shown that the householder who used electrical power for lighting, ironing, and radiator heating only is at a disadvantage as compared with the city householder, and, presumably, it is this householder who does not go in for an electric range or water heater on account of the very high initial cost, and who can least afford to be placed at a disadvantage. The Hutt Valley Power Board's scale of charges for lighting and heating is, apart from the actual £ s. d. result of its application, in marked contrast to the domestic tariff scale in operation in the city. The "domestic tariff" unquestionably has certain points of weakness, which will be referred to later, but at least it encourages the use of electricity; that is, after a certain number of units is used the price drops in a very encouraging fashion, from 5d per unit to 2a. Not so in the Hutt Power Board's system; the price (lighting, iron, and radiator heating only are being discussed in the present comparison) starts at 6d per unit, falls to 4d, rises again to 6d, and then, after 60 units have been used, falls, not to 2d, but to sd, and thereafter the charge remains at 5d per unit. The radiator load is not a popular load with many supply authorities, as the power demand resulting from its wide use may have the effect of forcing the demand upon tho supply auth°J" itv UP to an awkward "peak," and the "peak" is not economical business for the supply authority. That may or may not be the case with the Hutt Valley Power Board, but at any rate the scale of charges attends very capably to the radiator question. No one who has worked out the cost of warming up the family's toes for some hours each evening with power at 6d and 5a per unit continues to be enthusiastic over the economy of it ana he begins to doubt whether the convenience of being able to press a button and make a fire, with nothing to clean up in the morning, really does balance up with the cost. In the city the rate for radiator power is 2d and down to 14d (over the fixed number of units) m homes where no cooker is installed. TWO METERS NOT FOR SMALL HOUSE. Provision is made in the board's seali; of charges for consumers to avoid the high charge for heating by making application for the installation of a second meter. Under the two-meter syss;em the charge for heating power is considerably reduced (first 20 units 3d per unit, next 40 at 2a, and thereafter Id per unit), but the charge for power passing through the lighting meter goes up to 6d for the first 50 units and od for units above 50. Furthermore two meters can be applied for only when a consumer uses "on an average" over 24 units per month. If "ou an average" means an average over twelve,months then quite a number of small householders would not be entitled to the second meter, as radiators are not summer time convenience, and tor most months of the year the consumption of power would not amount to nearly 24 units per month. _ There is another point to be noted in regard to tho two-meter system, and that is that immediately the second meter is installed the minimum charge all the year round, jumps from 5s per month to 10s. That is, even though less than 24 units are used, through both meters, the cost is higher than for 24 units under the one-meter system as Bd. The radiator is an expensive convenience under the Hutt Power Board's scale of charges. THE DOMESTIC TAEHT. A correspondent recently criticised the city's "domestic tariff" system on the ground that 100 units of power cost the occupier of a ten-roomed house considerably more than the occupier of a five-roomed house. At this time o± the year the comparative costs would be (lighting and heating only) 16s 8d for the small house and 21s 8d lor the large hou;ie. As precisely the same service was given, the correspondent maintained, the charge should be the same. The reply of the council authorities was that equal service was not given, for obviously much more current would be used in lighting the large house than the small, and the larger proportion of lighting power at the higher rate must plainly make tho bill higher. It is generally accepted that lighting rates should bo higher than heating or other power rates, and the contention that equal service is given is thus answered. But the case is not wholly answered. It may be that the ten-roomed house is occupied by a family which is careful of lighting and the small house by a family that believes in big lights in every room and is not .particular about switching .them off. The big house family may go to bed promptly at half-past nine after straining its eyes under 16 eandlepower lights, and the festivities in the little place next door may continue under excellent lighting conditions till any old time. In short, the five-roomed house may use up more power in actual lighting than the big house next door, but the bill is lower! Several times this discrepancy has been mentioned at the -council table the Mayor has, as a councillor, made the point more than once—and it is understood that tho matter will be brought up again in tho near future.