HOME EQUIPMENT

Evening Star, Issue 19805, 2 March 1928, Page 2

HOME EQUIPMENT

AT A VERY MODERATE GOST AUSTRALIAN WRITER’S VIEWS JHow to equip your home, whether it bo ancient or modern, electrically for a very modest sum is explained by a lady in an Australian magazine. There would doubtless be changes in the prices quoted to have a New Zealand application. An Englishman’s homo may bo his castle, but very often _it is his wile’s prison, where a treadmill kind of existence is her daily lot. Thousands of women are struggling bravely along in our midst, in old-fashioned houses entirely lacking in design and labor-saving devices, and using tools no hotter than those with which onr grandmothers worked. ft is especially to such women, in such homes, that 1 hope this article may be helpful. In a recent issue my aim was to demonstrate that no householder who came under the two-part tariff need fear to instal electric appliances in his home on account of their current consumption, because, with the cheap unit, the energy consumed is remarkably small, and die bills arc no longer nightmares. Furthermore, with ordinary care there is absolutely no danger to be feared in adopting electrical apparatus, as the makers and the commission have insisted on safeguarding the users, so that with ordinary common sense there is no danger wdiatcver, even young children being able to operate the majority of appliances. Having established the fact that electricity is both safe and economical to use, 1 am met on all sides by criticism from those wdio would only too willingly be converts to modern methods, but who all Jiud an insuperable stumbling block in the high cost of the necessary appliances; so it is with this aspect of the problem that I propose to deal'. The weekly “ grind ” resolves itself into lour main operations—i.c., cooking, cleaning, washing, and ironing, and to be able to perform them easily and .thoroughly would till many a woman’s heart with a song instead of a sigh. Of course, whore money is no object, there arc appliances to suit every requirement; but to the majority money is the great deciding factor. 1 have before mo as .1 write a group of all the appliances absolutely necessary to quite alter a weary housewife's outlook on the domestic problem. My total outlay on these was £ls (leaving a balance of £8 to be paid in 'monthly instalments on the vacuum cleaner'). It consists of a griller stove £■> 10s, an ovnette, £2 IDs; saucepan in three compartments, £5 18s Gd; an electric iron, £2; kettle, £2 ss; and vacuum cleaner, £9 5s Gd—total £23 9s. In this group are appliances capable of roasting, cake baking, grilling, frying, boiling, toasting, and steaming; of tea. and toast making; of house cleaning and .of ironing. Now' for the washing machine! It docs not appear in the group, tor the simple reason that it can never figure among the inexpensive appliances. Yob there are ways of owning such a machine. They are, for example, obtainable on the hire purchase system, which Sir John Monash assured us, in his speech at the Electrical Exhibition, is to be adopted by the Commission as a help to would-be purchasers of highlypriced appliances. Washing machines range in price from £3O upwards, according to holding capacity; of course, the larger ones do the work move quickly. In homes where a weekly laundress is employed at 8s per week and fares, say, 9s in all, one may he. said to have “ bought one’s laundress ” (in the shape of a washing machine) in 80 x 20 divided by 9—equalling about sixty-seven weeks, or seventeen months—by a regular weekly payment of the usual laundry money, and let me assure you that a Monday morning has quite a different look when you own a washing machine. It may interest you to note that of those appliances the griller stove will make your toast, grill chops, fry, or boil a saucepan on top, and has a control switch which gives high, medium, or low heat as required. In order to roast a joint or hake cakes, the ovenettc is merely placed on top of the griller stove. The little-known electric saucepan is worthy of a high place among electric appliances. It resembles one large .saucepan with two others on top of it. Jinny a time a whole dinner may be cooked on this—e.g., a stew may be placed in the saucepan, potatoes and carrots may then be (tte.amod in the lower .steamer, while a Steam pudding is placed in. the top one. Even the , plates may be warmed on top while 'the potatoes are being dished up. All this on medium heat, which is very economical cooking. For these cooking appliances (.suitable for a. family of four or five people) three power points in the kitchen I should be sufficient.' and the outlay is shown above.

All these cooking appliances may bn acquired gradually it" the total is too great a strain financially. Instead of some of these there is a combined cooker, costing £lo_Jos, but I. would prefer the smaller articles. Now for a few words to the fortunate ones who can build their own homes, however small. Of course, owners of new homes are put_ on the “ two part tariff ” at once, so in order to make it a payable proposition they ought to use the cheap power whenever they can. When you realise that by cutting down your space requirements you actually save tho money with which to buy your electrical apparatus, you will no doubt get to work and do some figuring. If your borne is to be of brick, remember that every 100 square feet (lOffc x 10ft, or sft x 20ft) that you can cut out means a saving of £75, and, if of wood, a saving of £SO: hence the, cost of a few feet cut off each laundry wall, added to the cost of a copper (355) and chimney (£5 ss), ought to pay for your washing machine outright. In extreme cases the laundry might

be dispensed with altogether, the kitchen serving both purposes, the flataed washing machine acting as a 3 and the troughs being covered with a removable table top when not in use. , . . , Towards equipping your kitchen electrically you can save—(a) one fire stove, £6; ’’(b) chimney and mantel, £ls—in all £2l. Adding this amount to the amount saved in the laundry, the full equipment should be within your reai’li. It is not generally understood that electric washing machines do not heat the water, so that some means of providing hot water is necessary. The best way to do this is to insta.l a fifteen-gallon liohwater system, which simply needs switching on when required, and which costs (in aluminium finish) about £ld 10s. If the cost of this is prohibitive, the water could easily he heated in the old copper, or an'electric hot stick of a large size could be put in the water overnight, and left there till next morning, but the expense of this is prohibitive. . In a later article I hope to deal with the question of how and where space may bo best economised, and with some useful bints on the economical use of electric appliances^..