The Washington times., 1916-01-04
Electric COOKING
RANGE IS COSTLY
voluntary" Reduction Of Rates
Does Not Appeal to Average
Washington Person.
econtlnuea trom FIrst Pass.l

CONTINUED from First Page)
ne separate service Installed for a
4offee percolator, toaster. or laundry
Moreover-and IL Is a point not to be
everlooked-in getting this separate
service. he would have to agree to pay
minimum charge Of 80 cents month
in addition to the minimum charge Of 81
q month which he pays for electric
lighting service. The company proposed
= minimum rate OF 81 month, but this
S1e commission cut in half.
Ranges Are Expensive.
Electric ranges are expensive. When
Mr.. Ham, stated to The Times repre-
sentative that about 75 out OF the 5000
customers OF the Potomac Electric
Power Company could hope for any I'M
mediate benefit from the @as proposed"
rates for cooking and heating, he, ex-
planned that he was referring to those
persons who already own electric
ranges. Electric ranges run In price
from $40 for the smallest, to $50, for
ed. for the average sized family. The
price OF q gas range for the averagd
sized family ls S25. So that the customer
who now cooks with coal or gas. in or
posed" rates. would have TO discard
the investment made in his coal or gas
range. and pay out from $40 to so for
an electric range.
Mr.. Ham himself does not hope that
such thing would be done by the resi-
dence owner or the apartment house
owner who uses gas. He thinks, how
ever, that with new houses erected and
new apartment houses built il might
we'll happen that electric ranges would
be installed. In fact the seventy-five
persons to whom he refers live for the
most part in brand-new houses OF apart
ments in which electric ranges were
installed when the buildings were
erected.
man who lives in a house or apartment
already equipped with an electric
range: have his meals cooked any
cheaper under the new rates? At the
OFFICES of the Washington Gas Light
Company an investigator for The Times
took from the books at random the
monthly accounts of a large number of
customers. who use gas exclusively for
cooking, and found that the average bill
was $3.50, or slightly below that hkure.
Average Family's Cooking.
Assuming that the average family
spends an hour and a half a day for
cooking-thlrty minutes before each
meal. or fifteen minutes each before
breakfast and supper. and an hour be-
fore dinner-it 10 not difficult to COM
pute what the head of the family would
lind his electric range costing him.
First, let US understand the terms and
the formula used In the computation.
The capacity OF an appliance when in
Use Is measured In watts" One thou
sand watts" equal a ''kilowatt.' So
that-if the total capacity of q range
is 1000 watts. the description employed
in the sales catalogues, it is the same
as to say its capacity is five kilowatts.
Now. take an electric range Of type
y-1S, non-automatic, plain finish," sold
by the WestinRhouse Electric and Man
ufacturing Company. This range has
an overhead oven heater. q boiler heat
er, and one 10-inch and two 8-inch discs
for cooking things in skillets and sauce
pans. In appearance and number OF
appliances 1t corresponds with the or
binary gas range. but sells for $50 An
Ofhcial of the Potomac Electric Power
Company was asked to compute what
this range would cost, on the average,
to run. The listed capacity Of the range
was 1000 watts. but It was assumed
that not more than $500 watts would be
used at any time, and that the cooking
done would consume an hour and q
half a day. Changing decimal points,
he said the $500 watts would represent
S.5 (three and a halo kilowatts. Null
tiplying this figure by one and a half
hours-the kilowatts per day used-and
multiplying this result by thirty days,
would use 1915 killowatt-hours Of cur
rent Ten OF these 1916 kilowatt-hours
would be paid for at the 1O-cent rate,
SrrsL or a. The, The remaining 1s 541:5 kilSwatt-
4.41. Adding A.H to Il he found that
the average bill OF the owner of this
range would be $5.H a month for cook
Ing alone!
In justice to the Potomac Electric
Power Company II must be said that
this figure is higher than that justi-
fed by the computations OF the West
observations of the experience of twen-
ty-four families. The average consump-
tton for the average electric range fig
ured by the WESTINGHOUSE people was
which. using the formula for figure cost
based on the newly fixed rates in
monthly Bill for cooking by electricity
$3.e1 as against $3.50 for gas.
Another Comparison.
There Is another way of making this
comparison. but from the standpoint of
the cook trying to get a hurried meal
Il Is intensely practical. 1t is on the
basis Of the relative amount Of heat OBJ
NAlnSd. The universally recognized
measurement OF heat is the British
thermal unit. According to an expert
estimate which has been made it is
found that from each kilowatt hour of
electric current for which, under the
new rate in Washington, the con-
sumer would pay cents, he would
3 cents worth of gas, however, officials
Of the local gas company claim that a
customer gets q, III British thermal units,
or something over six times as much
heat From $3.50, the amount which
the average Washingtonian pays for
gas for cooking a month, ne gets on
this basis nearly 100000 British therm-
al units of heat, whereas the man
cooking with the electric range would
get from the $S61 which the westing-
house Company says he would pay a
month, just about 4l0.SS6 units.
The Potomac Electric Power Company
officials say that in order to compute
the service property. two meters would
be necessary. In Boston. a few months
ago. there was inaugurated an electric
cooking and heating service. using a
single meter for both lighting and fuel,
and charging, instead of 8 cents per
kiloWAtt hour for the excess over ten
lxiiowatt hours a month, cents. This
difference OF a single penny can make a
lot Of difference. for the man who would
pay 1851 a month for electric cooking in
WashinEton. would get tho same service
for $2,N In Boston.
Gamble For Company.