=Cost of Conveyed Heating Systems=[23]
In our variable climate, with its sudden and extreme changes in
temperature, the matter of heating and ventilation demands the serious
attention of all houseowners and housebuilders.
The most common method of heating the modern dwelling is by a hot-air
furnace in the cellar, with sheet-metal ducts for conveying the heated
air to the various rooms. The advantages of a furnace are cheapness of
installation and, in moderate weather, a plentiful supply of warm but
very dry air. The disadvantages are the cost of fuel consumed, the
liability of the furnace to give off gas under certain conditions, and
the inability to heat certain rooms with some combinations of
temperature and wind. The cost of installing a furnace and its proper
ducts in a ten-room house is from $250 to $350; such a furnace will
consume fifteen to twenty tons of anthracite coal in a season in the
latitude of New York City. The hot-air system works better with
compact square houses than with long, "rangy" structures. For a house
fully exposed to the northwest blasts, one of the other systems should
be considered.
Perhaps the next most popular arrangement is a sectional cast-iron
hot-water heater, with a system of piping to and from radiators in the
rooms to be heated. Hot-water heating has many advantages, some of
which are the warmth of the radiators almost as soon as the fire is
started and after the fire is out; the moderation of the heat; the
freedom from sudden changes in amount of heat radiated; the absence of
noise in operation, and the low cost in fuel consumed. Some of the
disadvantages are the high cost of installation and the lack of easy
or ready control (as the hot water cools slowly, and shutting the
radiator valves often puts the whole system out of adjustment). A
hot-water heating plant for a ten-room house will cost $400 to $600,
according to the type of boiler; the corresponding fuel consumption
will be twelve to sixteen tons of coal per season.
The third system in common use is by steam through radiators or coils
of pipe connected to a cast-iron sectional boiler, or a steel tubular
boiler set in brickwork. This system is in use in practically all
large buildings; and its advantages are the moderate cost of
installation (as the single-pipe system is very efficient and the
pressure to be provided against in connections and fittings is
slight); the ease of control (since any good equipment will furnish
steam in twenty minutes from the time the fire is started, and fresh
coal thrown upon the fire with a closing of dampers will stop the
steam supply in five minutes--or any radiator may be turned on or off
in an instant); the ability to heat the entire house in any weather,
or any single room or suite of rooms only; and, lastly, the moderate
fuel consumption.
The disadvantages of steam heat are no heat, or next to none, without
the production of steam, involving some noise in operation, and danger
of explosion. Steam equipment in a ten-room house will cost $300 to
$550, the lower price being for a sectional boiler and the higher for
a steel boiler set in brickwork. The fuel consumed will be from ten to
fifteen tons per season.
Both hot-water and steam systems require supplementary means of
ventilation. Placing the radiators in exposed places, as beneath
windows, in the main hall near the front door, in northwest corners
and near outside walls, will insure some circulation of air; and, if
one or two open fire places be provided on each floor, there will be,
in most cases, sufficient ventilation without the use of special
ducts.
FOOTNOTES:
[23] See Chapter III for full discussion.--EDITOR.
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| TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE. |
| =================== |
| |
| 1) Figure numbers (which aren't contiguous) have been preserved. |
| |
| 2) Part III, Chapter V. The table showing thickness of vitrified |
| pipes reads: |
| |
| 4 inches diameter 1/2 inch thick |
| 6 " " 1/16 " " |
| 8 " " 3/4 " " |
| 12 " " 1 " " |
| |
| The thickness figure for the 6 inch pipe has been left as |
| originally printed, but probably is incorrect (logically it should |
| be somewhere between 1/2 inch and 3/4 inch thick). |
| |
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