Water-Heaters To Be Cut To Save Power

Chronicle (Levin), 9 April 1948, Page 5

Water-Heaters To Be Cut To Save Power

^ ; WELLINGTON, April 8. The Electricity Control Order 1948 whieh has been issued by the Electricity Oontroller is notified in this week 's gazette. The Minister in Charge of the State Hydro Electrie Department (Hon. R. Seinple) in a statement -explained that the '1948 order was iii the uiain a eonsolidation of a-number oi previous electricity control orders anii would operate througliout the North and South Island. Air. Seinple said the most marked feature of the order was greater decen tralisation of' control and wider powers given to various power boards an 1 municipal electrie supplv authorities te deeide the best means of liniiting tlu eonsuniption of power in their own distriets. Certain general requjreinents remained such as the restrietion upo.i new electrie space heating installations in premises other than new dwellings. * In the South Island all electrie thernial storage water heaters on services exceeding 10 hours daily were to be changed over to tlie metered suppiy as was done in the North Island in 1943. Also the restrietion upon the gale of radiators and radiator elements would Le contiiiued. On the other hand the order .provided for jioweibeing made available for the construc. tion of various defined elasses of build ing and for new dwellings as well as for an improvement of priuiary production. Apart from these mandatory require ments, said Air. Somple, • any other re strictions would be deeided by eacli electrie suppiy authority as inight be found neeessary to keep the consump tion Of power within tlie alloeation. 11 sufficient savings could not be made, or it was antieipated that this would be the case, then the suppiy of power foi domestic water heaters must be reduced by the requifed amonnt. Mr, Semple added that in* the North Island at the moment a reduction in th.e rate of ccnsumption was heing enforced and this would continue until the hydro position had recovered snfficiehtly. It^ was not iikely, therefore, that any "immediate change would he felt hy consumers there. Emphasis had again been placed under the 1948 order, he said, on savings whieh could be made by the eeonomical use of electricity for water lieating. Last Winter drastic • restrieliops.in th-e North Island resulted iu the saving of about 26 million uhits in energy consdmed. In the year ended Alarch 31, 1946, the. eonsumption of power solely by domestic storage water heaters amounted -to 353 million units, or 27 per eent. of the total used for all purposes. In 1947, eonsuniption for this purpose had risen to 399 million units, or nearly 30 per cent. of the total. These amounts, he said, did not include power used for other domestic purposes or bv industry or for farming, trams, railways or dairying. In times of eniergencv, therefore, when beeause of adverse weather conditions and high eonsumption reductions in power \vei*e unavoidably, the leas? upset to ,tke community as a whole would be caused if major savings were made bv reducing the use of power for domestic water-heating.