12 N. H. Agricultural Experiment Station [Bulletin 266 



In contrast to Farm No. 3, where the load curves fail to show a con- 

 centration in the summer months due to a predominance of household 

 equipment and lack of refrigeration, it will be observed that the curves 

 for Farm No. 2, where the load is largely developed from farm opera- 

 tions, including refrigeration, show the summer peak which is de- 

 sirable to the average central station (see Fig. 4). 



While the concentration from year to year varies between the months 

 of May and October, the load has maintained its characteristics stead- 

 ily and uniformly for 6 years. In this case the load is regularly in- 

 clined to come to two peaks, one in June and another in September 

 with a drop between, wliieh reflects the let-up in farm work between the 

 spring planting and fall harvest. 



Seasonal weather conditions influence this variation in peaks in the 

 load curve for any particular year. Nearly 60% of the applications on 

 this farm are of a farmstead nature — the heaviest proportionate load- 

 ing in farm work of any of the seven. Yet while the bulk of the oper- 

 ations were on the farm, the cost of such equipment was not as high 

 as for the house; 43% of the applications were of a household nature 

 and consumed 51% of the total equipment cost. 



One of the fundamental operations on a farm, pumping water, does 

 not appear on the above list of applications, since the buildings are 

 within reach of the city water system. This situation reduces the bulk 

 load considerably as compared to the usual farm location ; but since 

 this would be a uniform load throughout the year, it does not affect the 

 contour of the curves. 



The load distribution (refer to Table 8) shows that 52% of the total 

 consumption comes from equipment which spreads it evenly throughout 

 the year ; 41 % from equipment which utilizes a great amount of current 

 in the summer and but little in the winter ; and only 7 % from equip- 

 ment which has a high winter demand. The load curves, shown in Fig- 

 ure 4, have both substantial gross quantity throughout the year with the 

 added feature of the maximum demand coming in the midsummer 

 season. 



The importance of refrigeration in developing this quality in the 

 farm load is very evident ; two-fifths of the current consumed was re- 

 quired by the house and dairy refrigeration equipment, the larger part 

 of which was confined between the months of May and October. (No 

 single application which the project has as yet worked with can equal 

 refrigeration in its ability to produce a peak in midsummer, and it 

 may well be called the back-bone of the rural load.) 



The fact that this farm was fully equipped at the start gives six 

 years of load curves instead of five as in most of the other cases. 



No change in rate schedule occurred until 1928, when the high point 

 of lOV^ cents net caused a considerable drop in volume. The follow- 

 ing year this schedule was abandoned for a lower one, and the year's 

 bulk rose to the highest point in the six years. In 1930 another de- 

 crease in rate was made, but the farm was not greatly influenced and 

 remained at its normal gross load — about equal to that of the first 

 three years. The rapid slide of milk prices in the latter part of this 

 year necessitated the curtailing of any non-essential operations. 



