SAVING IN POWER

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20625, 5 August 1941, Page 4

SAVING IN POWER

RADIO RESTRICTION CUT OF TWO HOURS DAILY UP TO 80,000 UNITS (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. A suggestion that the national and commercial. broadcasting stations should operate on restricted hours in view of the, power shortage in the North Island is contained in a resolution passed by the Power Boards Association, Wellington. This was communicated to the Auckland Electric Power Board in a letter received at a meeting yesterday. The letter from the association stated that before the resolution was forwarded to the Government it had been submitted to the electricity controller who had requested an estimate of the saving in units which would be effected if this resolution were put into operation.

As a result of an investigation made by the Manawatu Oroua Electric Power Board some years ago it was estimated that, considering the loading occasioned by 250.000 radio licences then in force in the North Island, together with the additional lighting, accompanying it. a demand of up to 40.000 kilowatts would be created. With a shutdown oT tUo hours a day in radio broadcasting; there would be a saving of 80,000 units daily.

It was also estimated that this saving would allow the installation of an additional 16,000 ranges annually in the North Island alone. The letter concluded that the association was continuing negotiations with the Government. “If this were carried out it would mean 16,000 ranges a year, instead of a lot of hot air,” remarked Mr. H. T. Goldie, when the letter had been received. The chairman, Mr. Harbutt, said it was a question of diverting power from radio to cooking and other purposes. The number of ranges had been given merely as an illustration and the saving might be used for industrial power plants.