Abstract
IN a recent paper read before the Association of Supervising Electrical Engineers by Mr. Forbes Jackson, the quantity of electricity consumed by the London County Council and the difficulty experienced in reducing its cost are discussed. The area of. the L.C.C. is 116 square miles, and it has a population of more than four million. It consumes approximately for its own services, including drainage, schools, hospitals, fire brigades and administrative buildings, 35 million electric units a year. As this supply is taken from 1,100 different points and from various supply authorities, it is not able to reap the benefit of its great diversity of supply and get an inclusive tariff. This is perhaps the reason why electric supply is not more largely used. Mr. Forbes says that there are only three hospitals which use electric cooking, and its use is not increasing. The L.C.C. deals directly or indirectly with 1,200 schools, and whilst a big programme of conversion from gas lighting to electric lighting has taken place, the conversion to electric heating, with the exception of reflector fires in open-air schools, has been slow. The standard adopted for the lighting of schools is 8–10 foot-candles. Mr. Jackson points out that the low ceilings now favoured in modern schools make totally indirect lighting of class rooms undesirable, for a low ceiling when too bright has a depressing effect. It is known that the all-electric housing experiments of the L.C.C., of the St. Pancras Housing Association and others have been great successes. During the last four years, 23,000 houses or flats have been converted from gas to electric lighting by the L.C.C. More than 80 per cent of the tenants had electric light installed although their rent was raised to meet the cost of wiring.
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The L.C.C. as an Electricity Consumer. Nature 144, 146–147 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144146d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144146d0