KATURAL GAS. 
37 
possible the more efficient use of existing equipment. When the 
increment of increase is concentrated so as to require more equip- 
ment, as is the case in all peak loads, the cost of production to the 
unit of service is increased. Therefore, the cost of peak load 
natural gas service is greater than the cost of normal service. A 
rate schedule, to be equitable to all consumers of natural gas, must 
make the consumers who need and create the peak load service, pay 
a price that will be commensurate with the extra cost of the service 
they are receiving. 
House heating furnace services not only produce marked peaks 
each day, but the consumption is limited to relatively a short period 
out of each year. For this reason house heating furnace service 
costs more than ordinary gas service. This emphasizes the desir- 
ability of the use of auxiliary heating equipment, as outlined on 
page 38. 
BASIC KEASONS FOR LARGE SALES OF INDUSTRIAL GAS. 
These have been inadequate domestic price and policy of Govern- 
ment in fostering competition in the gas field. 
During the domestic off-peak period — usually nine months of the 
year — about 60 per cent of the equipment of a gas company is not 
needed for domestic natural gas service. Under competitive condi- 
tions in the field the gas can not be conserved for future use, except 
by unity of action of all producing companies. As the Government 
has always fostered competition, and therefore waste, the inevitable 
result has been to stimulate low-priced industrial gas sales, because: 
1. The companies needed the revenue to make up the deficit from 
their too low priced domestic gas service. 
2. As no one company could save its gas, except by the prohibitive 
“ unity of action of all producers,” each took all the gas it could get, 
as fast as it could get it out, thereby greatly depleting the supply for 
future service. 
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