Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-24
Peak Year Is Seen
In Electric Power
Sales During 1890
Trade Journal Editor
Analyses Prospective
Customer Increases.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

special DlSpatch TO Inc star.
NEW YORK, August 23.-The cleo
trical industry in the United States
will reach a new peak in domestic
customer increase this year owing to
large gains in electric refrigerator
sales, L. E. Moffatt, editor of Elec-
trio Merchandising, announced today
in making public the results OF a Ma
tion-wide survey Of public utility do
nestle customer volume. The new
peak will come in the face of de-
cline of 10 per cent under the num-
Der of new homes wired for electricity
in 1929.
1.-THE high domestic customer gains
to be reached this year will come
through a combination of new BUSH
ness traceable to income from both
new wired homes and to electric re-
frigerator installations" said MIR. Moi
fatt. Grouping of the two classes
of new revenue sources viii show for
the industry a net gain OF at least
ure almost reaches that of 1924, in
which year the central station COM
panies wired 1,748,000 new homes, the
largest gain In domestic customers ever
recorded.
New Wiring.
Approximately 100000 new dwell
ings will be wired by the end OF this
year. The total is drop Of 10 per
cent from the total of 100000 for 1929.
But the number Of electric refrigera-
tor customers will jump to about 900,-
600, showing gain of 100000 over
the total of $4,000 refrigerator sales
reached last year. Both classes OF do
nestle power income sources are prac-
tically equal in their revenue value
to the public utility. The average do
wired home Is $50. The revenue
represented by an electric refrigerator
Is almost exactly the same amount.
Reported declines in the number of
new homes wired in the United States
only seem to represent great losses, -
said Mr.. Moffatt. when they are COM
pared with the volumes of such in
stallations achieved in the years i'm
mediately following the Great War. In
those years, the electrical industry had
available tremendous generating ca
pacity, which had been built to meet
demands caused by postwar industrial
expansion. The industry, In seeking
outlets for this generating capacity,
made an intensive drive to create new
domestic customers. These came from
the ranks of the owners of old homes,
as well as from the builders of new
ones. In time, the percentage of old
homes wired for electricity substantially
reached the saturation point and since
then the industry, finding its domestic
customers in the field of new home
construction, reflects in its new wired
homes customer volume the rise or fall
Of new dwelling construction. Today, in
the United States, the average old home
To- Is d. =
for electricity. Generally speaking, the
old home Is not today q prospect for
new domestic customer increase to the
average electric light and power COM
pany
Appliance Use.
1.-THE present rate of growth of ap-
pliance use, especially in refrigeration
and cooking" the editor added in his
survey report, Indicates continued gains
in revenue to the utilities companies. AS
the use of appliances increases, the In
dustry will achieve revenue gains from
domestic customers at present unheard
of in utilities history, and this despite
present established policies of rate re-
duction.
Records for the last seven years
show that refrigerator sales have mount
ed constantly to the point where they
compensate now and later will more
than compensate for any declines in
new wired home contracts. In the
year 1925, the number of homes wired
for electricity was 1,398,00O and the
total of refrigerator sales reached rs 900.
In the following IL months LAOS, 900
new home wiring customers were gained.
Refrigerator sales jumped to 24S, 1000. In
1927, 1,240, 900 homes were wired for the
first time and $4,000 new customers
were gained through refrigerator pur-
chases. In 1928 new wiring con-
sales reached q total of 466 900. These
compare with $50, 900 home-wiring con-
tracts in 1929, with 5000 refrigerator
sales"