Letter: Low-income residents hurt by power rate hike

Monday, July 31, 2000 | 8:05 a.m.

We, like most older residents, find the evaporative cooler is 95 percent efficient in keeping cool in the summer heat, and you don't have to worry about air leaks. They use about one-fourth the amperage of 240-volt air conditioners and cost thousands less to buy. These are the people who are being hurt the most with power hikes, and they are the ones who are keeping the kilowatts down so we don't have blackouts. The rising wattage is contributed to those new homes in the valley with one or two large air conditioners running full time and settings below what's actually needed.

Some new residents don't even know what an evaporative cooler is! I believe the fair thing would have been to leave the rate as it was. Take a normal wattage limit per month and those exceeding that limit pay a meter hike of an additional 5 or 10 percent for wattage over that specified limit as you would with a water meter. This would apply to everyone. I would say that the amount of electricity drawn in the valley would diminish quite a bit when monthly power bills come due. This is the only fair way to hit those using more power than needed in the critical summer months. The way they are doing it now is punishing many low-income residents who are conserving power to begin with.

CHARLES A. HAGEN