Evening star., 1915-12-12
Claim That Charge Proposed
by Electric Company Re-
duces Household Expenses.
PUBLIC UTILITIES BOARD
TO CONSIDER SCHEDULE
Action May Be Taken Wednesday.
Data Gathered of Rates in
Other Cities.

That the practice or COOKING py elec-
tricity in the District. now in Its IN
fancy, will meet with considerable eX-
pansion during the next few months
II the new rates proposed by the Poto-
mac Electric Power Company are ap-
proved by the public utilities commits
sion, Is the belief of those who have
been investigating the cost OF electric
cooking in other cities.
Pending a general consideration OF
rates based on a valuation of the COM
panys property. the commission. 1t is
believed, will approve temporarily, at
least. the proposed rates. as they may
be found to be factor in reducing
household expenses which will be well
coined by the public. There is pos
sibility of the commission acting in
the matter at its board session Wednes-
day.
AS far as Washington is concerned,
there is not enough electricity sold Tor
cooking and heating purposes to en-
able the commission to get much or a
line on the subject. The reason, OF
course, is that there have been no spe-
cial rates for this service.
Lower Tariff Proposed.
But since the company's proposal to
eStaDilSn a nQCu lower tdi III oA StA
rent supplied homes for purposes other
than lighting, the commission has beer.
gathering data in other cities, and has
found that cooking and heating by cleo
tricity have been taken up quite ex-
tensively in number of municipal
tiles.
Some of the rates established else
where are higher than those proposed
for Washington, others are lower. but
tvr1t toe
that the local schedule should approx
mate an average rate.
As for the economy of cooking by
electricity. data collected from a num-
Der of cities and published in recent
issue of the Electrical World shows
that the costs are moderate and salts
factory. This information, which is on
file with the commission, was obtain
ed by the publication in question
through reports from a number of
ing equipment is installed throughout
the buildings.
Source of Information.
These reports cover the Carlton Court
apartments, in Buffalo; the Jensen
apartments. in Great Falls, Mont: If
teen ranges in similar service in Seat
tie, twenty-five in Salt Lake City and
various separate cases.
In the Carlton Court apartments in
Buffalo ninety-five electric ranges are
In daily service. and are proving, ac-
cording to the article, that cooking by
this method can be done at a saving.
In the Jensen apartment the report
shows the expense Of cooking per per-
son. based on the experience of fam
lily of seven who use an electric range.
q toaster and fatiron all connected
from separate cooking circuit. The
cost per person per month ranged from
O26l to o-424, or. figured up for the
entire family. from $1.95 to s2.97 per
month.
With respect to other Investigations
the report says:
THE equipment of an apartment
house at Worcester, Mass. with sim
rlex electric ranges in each suite has
attracted much attention Data have
been collected which show the average
energy consumption per person to be
twenty Eight kilowatt hours a month,
representing an expenditure for cleo
tricity of only 81 cents on a 3-cent
rate. SLIP on a 4-cent rate and $40
on scent rate"
Washington Proposition.
The rate proposed for Washington is
10 cents per hour for the first ten kilo-
watt hours, after which the price shall
be cents a kilowatt hour.
II the average monthly consumption
is twenty-eight kilowatt hours, as in
dictated by the Worcester report, the
cost to local consumers. based on this
average and the rate proposed by the
company, would be $l.54 month.
1t is pointed out by officials of the
company that IL this figure can be ac-
cepted as an approximate average
monthly bill, no hardship would be
worked by the requirement of mini
mum monthly charge of 81. The plan
under consideration contemplates the
installation of separate meters for the
heating and cooking service and q
minimum charge of this amount.