LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 101, 30 April 1943, Page 4

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

SAVING ELECTRIC POWER | Sir, —New Zealand is suffering fromj a shortage of electric power, and it threatens to become worse. Every means of economising is being urged by the authorities, and a good deal of inconvenience and discomfort is to be expected and accepted as among the minor horrors of war. There is one line of saving that has not been given any prominence—a reduction in the hours of broadcasting. Over 366,000 radio licences are now in force. The average receiving set consumes approximately* 50 watts. If all these were operating at once they would consume 18,000 kilowatts, which is close to the power output of the Mangahao hydroelectric station. In terms of steam generation, it is equivalent to nearly 20 tons'of coal an hour; in other terms, it is equivalent to about 20,000 domestic r3.(ii3tors Of course all the receiving stations are not operating at once, but it is not unreasonable to assume that at1 least half of them are run for the greater part of the day. There seems to be room for investigation whether there are not some periods when radio silence could be imposed—resulting in a valuable saving of power. New Zealand now has continuous broadcasting from 6 a.m, to midnight— an hour longer than the 8.8.C. giyes for its home service (7 a.m. to midnight). To cut off the last hour would not affect a very high proportion of radio receivers, but it would result in some reduction in the lighting load, which in each case is usually; heavier than that of the radio set. To close down some transmitters is no solution: they must all close down at the same time. And the transmitters themselves use up only a small fraction of the total radio load—only a few hundred kilowatts. —I am, etc., RADIAC.