Saving Electricity the Home

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 81, Issue 2, 15 August 1950, Page 181

Saving Electricity the Home

AS the greatest consumption of electricity in New Zealand occurs in the household, the largest saving of electrical power can be made by domestic users.

In this article

Dorothy Johnson,

S v ' Rural Sociologist, Department of Agriculture, Christchurch, discusses economies which can be effected by the housewife and how consumption can be regulated by reading the electric meter every few days. TT has been truly said that all -*■ domestic progress will take an electrically lit path. Electricity came first as a new source of lighting in the home, superseding oil, gas, and candles. In efficiency and in the saving of labour its use marked a great advance. But there is a world of difference between a house that is lit by electricity and the home that is run by electricity. Its full use affects even the foundation design of the house. A comparison between a modern house built to be run by electricity and any of the 19th or early 20th century houses that are: in use today shows that electricity is not just a fuel capable of providing light and warmth without the dirt and drudgery associated with oil lamps and the making and clearing away of solid fuel fires, but is also a force, a form of energy that can be used to replace human energy in a multitude of household tasks.

Where electric energy is used with intelligence in the home, comfort and efficiency are achieved with the minimum expenditure of human energy, and the housewife has more time to devote to the art of homemaking in its subtler and less tangible aspects and to play a part in the welfare of the community in which she lives. However, this electrically lit path of domestic progress does not seem to

be a smooth one. To homes that are geared to the electrical standard of living there come for various reasons periods of restricted supply, necessitating the reduced use of some form of apparatus and a reorganisation at some inconvenience of the carefully planned work routines of the home specially devised by country women to fit in with the work of the farm. The crises in electrical supply in New Zealand are due to a natural causeinsufficient rainfall to fill the lakes the water of which is harnessed to provide the electrical energy. This affects the North and South Islands at different times. However, work is proceeding to increase the number and size of the hydro-electric generating plants so that ultimately the supply will meet all possible needs. The graph on page 183 shows that the household is the greatest consumer of electricity. Over the 5 years shown well over half of the electricity used was taken by the consumer in the home. Of total electricity used in 1942 little less than 52 per cent, was taken by the domestic consumer, but by 1949 this proportion had risen to just more than 57 per cent. Therefore it is the domestic users who need to contribute the most to the saving of electrical power. The graph clearly indicates that of the total used in the home a little less than half was used by water heaters, which must be the greatest single use in which economies can be made. Right Use of Electrical Power The housewife has to be prepared for periods of power economy, some more stringent than others, which modify the enjoyment of the full electrical standard of life. Therefore, it would be an advantage to look more closely at the purposes for which electricity is used in the home. In England this need has been felt to be of sufficient importance to warrant the formation and action of an Electrical

Association for Women. The Director, Dame Caroline Haslett, D.8.E., considers that her work is, and has been for about 25 years, the education of the public in the right use of electricity in the home, and her various published works have been used as references b y

the writer of this article. In America investigation has been proceed in g along similar lines, and a number of conclusions have been reached which will also be of interest to rural consumers in New Zealand.

It is necessary to differentiate clearly between the use of electric current to fulfil the normal function of a fuel, when it is used as an alternative to gas, oil, or solid fuel, and its use as a force to operate motor-driven appliances, when it is used as an alternative to human energy.

This differentiation is of great significance for householders, as the current consumption of electrical motor-driven apparatus in the home is relatively small. This means that in times of shortages the housewife can still have electricity as a domestic servant if she studies how and at what rate electrical current is consumed in space heaters (radiators), cookers, vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, cake mixers, water heaters, sewing machines, irons, washing machines, etc. She may find that if she plans alternative means of heating rooms and water by solid fuel, and studies her cooking techniques to make full and economical use of the heat of the electric stove when in use, she can still have electrical energy to do her washing and ironing, to protect perishable food, to clean the house, to make clothes, and to mix the cakes. It may interest housewives to know that domestic water heaters consume more than one quarter of the electricity used for all industrial, commercial, and domestic purposes (see the accompanying graph). There may have to be reduced use of these amenities according to the degree of shortage.

In England the rationing of electricity is general and families find themselves without light or heat for several hours, days, or weeks, according to the skill they use to control consumption of power over the rationing period. The situation there puts a premium on the ability to read a meter and * to know what a unit of electricity is and what it can do

through the various domestic appliances. In New Zealand in the present shortages there is an increasing tendency among power boards to adopt rationing too; about half now use the quota system.

SERVICES GIVEN BY 1 UNIT OF ELECTRICITY

Time to Loading consume Appliance In watts one unit (hours) Electric clock .. IJ 666 j (more than 27 days) Lamp . .. .. 25 40 Lamp . . 40 25 Lamp .. .. 60 16j Lamp .. .. 100 10 Mixer beaters .. 25 to 120 40 to 8| Sewing machines .. 40 to 50 25 to 20 Fans .. .. 40 to 100 25 to 10 -- Vacuum cleaners .. 130 to 400 8 to 21 Immersion heaters . 250 to 500 4 to 2 Coffee percolators . 250 to 400 4to 21 Toaster .. .. 600 If Waffle Irons .. 500 to 600 2to I i Iron .. .. 600 Ij Kettles .. .. 500 to 2000 2to z Refrigerators (large motor) .. .. 250 to 300 4to 3| Water heater .. 600 Ij Water heater .. 750 l| Water heater .. 1000 I Water heater .. 2000 J. Washing machines . 200 to 400 , 5 to 21 Boiling plates on stove . . .. 1000 to 2000 I to 1 Oven element .. 1500 f Radiators .. .. 1000 to 3000 I to 1 Tubular space heater .. .. 60 watts per According foot of tube to length of tube

The Unit of Electricity The unit is naturally a specified quantity of electricity, like the pound in weight, yard in length, or pint in measuring volume. One unit of electricity has been consumed when a piece of apparatus marked 1000 watts has been connected to the main for 1 hour. . - The unit is most often referred to as the kilowatt-hour, shortened to kWH. A pound of peas when shelled gives a variable quantity of edible peas, but

a unit of electricity is always of the same value and bears a fixed relation to the loading in watts of an appliance. More electrical energy will be used by an appliance of 1000 watts than one of 100 watts for the same period, exactly ten times as much. Conversely, the same amount of electrical energy will keep a 100-watt appliance going ten times as long as it will a 1000-watt appliance. This point is worth illustrating more fully, for it is the key to the solution of the housewife’s problem in controlling her consumption of electricity. Every piece of electrical apparatus she buys should have the wattage or loading marked on it and she should know what that loading is. With the definition of a unit of electricity she can calculate her consumption. The table in the previous column sets out the wattage of different household appliances and the time for which they can be run by 1 unit of electricity. Dame Haslett notes:It is an interesting fact that when the question of economising in the use of electric current is mentioned the first reaction of most people is to switch off the electric light, or to reduce the power of

the lights in the house by substituting lamps of a lower wattage. The proportion of the domestic load which is accounted for by lighting is relatively small. If 100-watt electric lights were left burning in every room of a 10roomed house they could consume in 1 hour only the

-same amount of current as a 1-bar electric fire would use in the same period. Bearing this principle in mind, it is necessary to consider what are the real needs of the household with regard to

lighting from the point of view of safety, efficiency, and comfort. Industry has in the past few years paid special attention to the relation of efficient lighting in factories to health and production and the same principles may well be 1 considered with regard to domestic lighting. A wartime social survey [in England] revealed how poorly lighted is the average home for even the most simple household task. Only one-third of the housewives thought that they could see well by artificial light. Over half the people had less. than half the light they should have had in their kitchen, living room, or sitting room for sewing or reading. This is bad economy, both from their own and the national point of view, for there is, no doubt that the morale and ability of people to work is a reflection of their home life and the comforts available in their home. There is no reason today why in the home, in schools’,, or at work eyes should be strained for lack of light. In times of power shortages the chief aim should be the maintenance of adequate standards of lighting. The use of power can certainly be drastically curtailed for advertisement and decoration. Where a small electric motor, used to drive an appliance is rated in horsepower the wattage can be found by simple conversion. A 1-h.p. motor is equivalent to an appliance with a loading of 746 watts. A sewing machine uses a motor of 1/20 h.p., which is equivalent to a loading of less than 40 watts. It can therefore be run for more than 25 hours to use 1 unit of s electricity. Few housewives run their sewing machines more than 25 hours in a month, so the consumption of electricity to do the family sewing is negligible.

Meter Reading Meters, of which there are two types, are marked in kilowatt-hours. The first type gives direct readings like the mileage indicator of a motor-car and the second type gives dial meter readings (see the illustration above). On the dial meter there are usually four dials to record units, tens, hundreds, and thousands of kilowatt-hours. In addition, there are either one or two smaller dials which register 1/10 kilowatt-hour and 1/100 kilowatt-hour per division on the dial respectively.

The pointers! revolve alter-1 nately in a I clockwise and! an anti -clock- 1 wise direction. I To take the I reading begin at the dial at the extreme left,! which registers I thousands of I

kilowatt-hours. Take down the last figure at which the pointer has rested and read each dial in turn. The meter reading shown in the illustration above is 8888.9 units, made up as follows:

Units Dial on left .. .. 8 X 1000 = 8000 Second dial .. : 8 X 100 = 800 Third dial 8 X 10 80 Fourth dial .. . . 8 X I 8 Fifth dial .. 9 X 0.1 = 0.9 Total 8888.9

Note: The pointers of the large dials are not on figure 8, but nearly on figure 9. In the small dial the pointer is on figure 9.

Practical Application All the factors affecting the consumer in times of unavoidable shortages can be condensed in a few rules for practical application by the individual housewife. Where quota rationing is the means adopted for saving, the most effective economy is obtained by limiting the use of radiators and water-heating appliances. Not only is their loading high, leading to a high , consumption of electricity per hour, but in practice they are in use for long periods Of time compared with irons, sewing machines, etc. Therefore the use of fires should be started earlier in the year for space heating and the electric radiator put away. Moreover, the electric heating of water should be cut off entirely if there is an alternative method available, or it should be limited to reduced periods for essential purposes and the water used at a lower temperature. This is surely not too heavy a price to pay to keep the country’s essential work in running order. It is a less costly price than cutting down all industry to a 4-day week as was attempted in one country. That method leads to many troubles. The housewife should become accustomed to reading the meter every few days, tightening or releasing the restrictions as the meter indicates a consumption above or below the quota to be rationed. Those without electric water heating need to save electric power in other ways. The electric oven is an efficient piece of equipment, and much can be accomplished for the expenditure of 1 unit of electricity per person per day, which is the quantity the average electric oven consumes. These suggestions should enable all consumers to make their reductions in the way best suited to their requirements and habits . of life. ’ That is their right.

Reversible Pullovers AS small boys, and some men too, seem to have difficulty in telling right from wrong sides of knitted pullovers, it is worth while when knitting for them to choose patterns which turn out the same on both sides or in which there is no obvious right or wrong side. Then, if a little extra care is taken in finishing off and sewing up, the garment may be worn either side out, its life is lengthened by distributing wear more evenly, and there are no more cries of “Which way does this go?” This recommendation is especially suitable for sleeveless pullovers. When knitting, splice the wool, as knots would make the joins conspicuous. To join the seams, instead of holding the sections side by side and sewing over and over, have them flat, edge to edge, and join with a darningtype stitch, backward and forward. Shoulders may also be joined this way or by grafting. For the bands round neck or armhole pick up the stitches alternatively plain and purl and from the front and back of the edge, as this prevents the formation of a ridge or one side, and cast off plain and purl.

—NORMA K. METSON,

Rural Sociologist, Department of Agriculture, Wellington.