The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-06-22
COST OF LIVING
 VS. PEAK LOAD"
Price of Electricity May Be
 Gut in Half.
(By H. w. Adams )

Great corporations selling service to the public no longer try to keep their business affairs from the public. Elk changes of condolences, they find, breed friendships. They find it a, big help to take the consumer in as sort of business partner and let him know the daily problems big business men have to meet. The electrical industry was one of the first to urge the con sumner to learn all about electric Electrical men are spending millions of dollars each year in newspap pers and magazines and in papers, book lets. Apanp phlets, to assist a better un- derstanding of electricity and what it is doing for the world today.
 How many know the everlasting problem Of the electric plant that sup plies light, heat and power? To the industry this is known as the peak load" If this puzzle could be solved then every one would get electric light, heat and power for less than one-half what it costs now. The peak load" trouble is based on the fact that all day long nobody needs electric light. From to g o'clock every night everybody needs light. What does the big plant with millions of dollars invested do meantime? When Horses Stand Idle Business is
 Bad.
 How, for instance, would you like to run a livery stable where your horses stand idle all day? Imagine this liv- cry in a suburban town where it's bus ses were used only during the rush hours morning and night when resi- dents went to and from the train No calls came in during the day, yet the livery has to be ready to give decent service to everybody for an hour or so twice day. Could you afford to feed a lot of horses and py aa lot of driv- CTS who, were idle all day, but yet were needed to meet the public's demands? This is exactly the peak 1oad''' prob lem all the big electric plants are up against all over the country.
 The electric light company is in business to furnish electric current to an entire community whenever and whatever is wanted. Do you realize what that means? Here's how it works:
 a. m.-About twenty-nine babies wake up and cry. Their mothers get up and each turns on one electric light for ten minutes.
 6 a. m--The "earIy birds get up and use the electric light while they shave and dress.
 7:ao a. Breakfast time, when electric coasters and percolators are using small amount of current.
 a m.-Factorfes start up. E1ec- tricity is needed to start the wheels Tunn1nSs- 10 make the motors go or there may be no factories, and then there is no need for power.
 All day Iong.-Here and there sweepers, fans, f1atirons, heat pads, cellar light, vacuum cleaners, washing ma chimes and other electrical app1i- ances are atvwork, but very little cur rent is required for all these.
 6-8 D. m.-Everything in town is lighted up-houses, stores. windows. streets, signs and in every place where there's human being.
 8-11 p. m--Graduauy all these lights wink and die out one by one and only the street lights and a few ex- captions are left.
 II p. m. to 5 a. na.-Only the street lights and night lights are using the electric current
 Ratsc Go Lower as More Electricity
 Is Used.
 So it is pretty much the same with the electric company as it is with your livery, only instead of a. stable full of idle horses there are hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in boi1- CTS, engines, generators and equip ment that for the most part is needed only for the rush hours of the day that is, between 6 and 8 p. m If the livery has to charge a rate so that the rush hour profits will balance the idle hour waits it is easy to under stand why the electric company has to do likewise. It is also clear that electric, rates will go tumbling down when people use electricity during the day and help solve the peak load'' problem.