The Washington times., 1924-06-16
HOUSEHOLD HINTS
Eliminating Waste in
Electrical House.
keeping.
- SALLY 4. DAVIDSON

Many people take economy to
mean deprivation. It 10 nothing Of
the sort. ECONOMY means the
elimination Of waste-and elimina-
ton Of waste il efficiency In ita
true sense.
Electricity IL the cheapest power
any housekeeper can employ to do
her lighting and relieve her Of the
myriad Of taxing household tasks.
e she but will employ It intelligent.
". The only fault, II indeed il IL
that, 10 its ready availability. Like
water 1t is so readily available that
we are inclined to let It flow. Il
means little, we feel, to let the cleo.
trlc cleaner run Tor the several min.
utes required to answer the door
Den or telephone. Yet those two
or three minutes added to others
thus wasted throughout the month
may cost you the price Of two,
three or four kilowatt hours, which
would have aperated any one OF the
electrical appliances for the same
length Of time doing really useful
work.
Solves Mystery Of Bills.
For example, electricity is wasted
with no benefit to the washing ma.
chine when 1t Is left running when
the washing ts completed or when
It IL empty Likewise to overhead
the Iron or ironer results in need.
less expense. Yet these are every.
DAY occurrences In many households.
A friend Of mine told me recently
OF her efforts to solve the mystery
Of an electric bill that puzzled her.
She was. she declared, certain the
fault must d. with the meter, the
meter reader or that her new cleo.
trio toaster and percolat0r which
she had been using for a month
were consuming too much electric.
ity.
went to her house and upon
examining he: bill and meter found
they were undoubtedly right. Also
she insisted no lights had been left
burning unnecessarily, nor had she
been using more light than usual
Then without telling her why,
asked for coffee and toast with
luncheon, az / wanted to find out
how she used these two appliances.
discovered that she started to
heat her toaster fully fifteen min.
utes in advance Of using It, and
instead Of pulling the plug out Of
the convenience outlet when she
finished, she left the toaster heat.
ing while she ran back to the
kitchen to get something she had
forgotten. Altogether It took her
twenty-five minutes to make five
pieces OF toast.
Coffee Process Similar.
The process Of making the coffee
was about the same. She attached
the percolator when she first began
to prepare her luncheon and Il
percolated all during the meal until
we were ready for It. Altogether Il
took thirty-five minutes to make
the coffee, where 1t should have
taken only fifteen or twenty al
the most. Where the coffee ID moi
required until the end Of a meal
the percolator need not be con
nected until the meal is half way
through, because If started earlier
1t must be kept going to keeI
the coffee hot.
A month later she called to tel
me that although she had used thu
toaster and percolator every day
during the month, her bill had beer
only slightly larger than before
she had purchased them. The rea
son was, Of course, that she had
learned to operate them properly.
Close attention must be paid e
these small savings II one desire.
to introduce into the home, system
| economy. and efficiency. Although
! such savings may seem trivial they
amount to a considerable sum al
the end Of a year. Besides, they
teach one to save. We can wei
take a lesson from Benjamin
Franklin's Poor Richard" that The
who cannot save q cent will never
saVA a Anllarn