HEATING DEVICES AS WE FIND THEM.--FURNACE ESTIMATES.--COMBINATION
HOT AIR AND HOT WATER.--DISH-WARMING ARRANGEMENTS.--HOW TO GET A
GOOD HEATING APPARATUS.
For the present, people who build must take things as they find them,
and use heating and ventilating apparatus as regularly manufactured.
Experiments are uncertain. The theory of the proper heating and
ventilating of a house as set forth in previous chapter is correct. The
fulfilment of the ideas in dwelling-house heating remains to be
practically worked out. It is not the business of the architect, or the
housewife, or the owner of the house, to work out these mechanical
details. It will be done in time by competent mechanical experts.
In the estimates subsequently given, the furnace is the only means
considered for general heating. However, this does not indicate a
prejudice in favor of that particular method. The furnace is considered
and figured upon as the ordinary method of heating houses of moderate
cost. It is the least expensive plant to be used for general heating.
Indirect radiation from hot water or steam is to be preferred to a
furnace. A combination of a hot-air furnace with hot water, or steam, is
used with fair success. In this case, a hot-water coil is placed in an
ordinary furnace, which connects with hot-water radiators in a
conservatory or other room for the purpose of contributing a uniform
degree of heat to that room. The water supply is a tank, located well
above the level of the radiators, and connecting through an inlet pipe
with the coil in the furnace. The proper means of supplying this tank
with water is through a ball-cock or float-cock, the float of which
opens the valve when the water gets low in the tank. Thus the supply is
as constant as the source. A hot-water radiator of this kind may be used
in connection with a device for warming dishes or keeping food warm. The
heat is gentle, uniform, and constant. This is a general advantage of
all hot-water heating.
Aside from the automatic arrangements for controlling the steam or water
pressure in the heating apparatus, and thus measurably controlling the
temperature in the building, other more positive automatic arrangements
are provided which undertake to maintain any fixed temperature. These
are proprietary devices, patented and advertised.
Complaints are made of the general inefficiency of everything under the
sun: hence, furnaces and other heating apparatus come in for their
share. An architect is sometimes asked how he would heat a certain
building. He answers, "Hot water, steam, or furnace."--"Oh, I wouldn't
have steam. My uncle had a steam plant in his house, and they nearly
froze to death all last winter; and they burned over a ton of coal a
week." The same things are said, and truly, of every kind of heating
apparatus made, when we consider them in general classes. General
complaints of a similar nature are made of everything. In regard to the
steam plant or hot-water apparatus, or anything else of which this thing
may have been said, one may first acknowledge its truthfulness, and then
consider what it all means. Something is at fault. It may be that the
whole design of the apparatus is faulty. The design may be right, and
the construction bad. Everything else may be right, but the apparatus
too small; or there may be some little defect which has to do with the
placing of the apparatus in the house. Sometimes, when everything is in
good form, the apparatus does not receive proper attention: hence
trouble.
It may be asked how one is to get a good heating apparatus for a
dwelling-house. The first thing to be determined is, the particular kind
to be used: whether hot-water, steam, or hot-air furnace. There are many
manufacturers of the various apparatus, who are regularly in the
business. To these may be submitted plans of the building, and a request
for estimates and suggestions. It is the experience of an architect that
one who is putting money regularly in the manufacture or production of
anything will not waste his energies for a great length of time on a bad
thing, if he knows it. The evidence that an establishment has been
putting up good furnaces or other heating apparatus is long-continued
business success. If the owner of a house writes to an old-established,
wealthy concern, and sends his plans, he is as certain to get a reliable
proposition as he can be of anything. A local agent of an establishment
of this kind may misrepresent, unintentionally or otherwise. The surest
way is to go to headquarters. The local agent does not always know
exactly what should be done. A competent architect can settle all these
matters for an owner. However, if an architect says there are only one
or two furnaces or heating apparatus which are all right, he is either
ignorant or dishonest. There are many different kinds which will give
fair satisfaction.
The idea in this chapter is to take things as we find them, and suggest
what may be done. The theories outlined in the previous chapter may be
correct, but they do not amount to anything to a man who is building
to-day. The only purpose of this chapter is to suggest to those who are
building that they go to a first-class house, pay a fair price, and get
the best possible apparatus regularly in the market.