<Willie.Mookie@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote
>Since the beginning of the industrial age until the mid 1960s the cost
>of energy decreased steadily at an average rate of 4.9% per annum.
>Noting this trend experts in the 1950s predicted that somewhere
>between 1970 and 1990 energy would be too cheap to meter.
Can you provide any references on who made the predictions and what they
said? I haven't seen any time scale predictions on the "too cheap to
meter" idea.
While talking about the possibility of fusion energy in the future (on
Sept 16, 1954), Admiral Lewis L. Strauss said:
"It is not too much to expect that our children will enjoy in
their homes electricity too cheap to meter, -- will know of great
periodic regional famines in the world only as matters of
history, --
will travel effortlessly over the seas and under them and through
the
air with a minimum of danger at great speeds, -- and will
experience a
lifespan far longer than ours as disease yields and man comes to
understand what causes him to age."
The idea was that the fuel costs of fusion power would likely be so low,
compared to the overall cost of the power plant, that the expense of
meters, meter reading and & specific (rather than generic) billing might
make it easier to sell power at a flat (unmetered) rate. You likely get
you local phone service flat rate. It isn't free, but it is unmetered
and you pay the same whether you use the phone 24/7 or if you never use
it. If you live in an apartment you may get your electricity unmetered.
Your landlord might include the cost of the electricity you use flat
rate, included in your rent (so he doesn't have to by meters & spend the
time reading them every month). If you stay in a hotel the electricity
in your room is unmetered, as there is an assumed average cost, which is
factored in by the owners when they set the prices for the room. Two of
the places I worked at had unmetered power, paid for at a flat rate. So
many people already consider electricity "too cheap to meter" in many
cir***stance.
Karl Johanson
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