922 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



Februaky 22, 1006. 



Greenhouse Seating. 



PERFECT HEATING APPARATUS. 



Here is a perfect heating apparatus 

 for the man with a shallow boiler pit 

 and using low pressure steam : Instead of 

 using a pump or steam trap of any kind 

 that I have ever seen, place a barrel or 

 tank twelve feet above the return pipe, 

 and run a %-inch pipe from the return 

 to the top of the tank; also run a i/o- 

 inch or 7.1-inch pipe from the bottom of 

 the tank, with check valve near the 

 boiler to keep the steam from backing 

 up when throwing the cold water out 

 of the pipes. As soon as the water gets 

 out of the pipes, it relieves the pressure ; 

 the water starts from the tank to the 

 boiler and keeps a steady heat with less 

 trouble or expense than any device I have 

 ever used. I am at present using a 

 fifty-gallou barrel with success, heating 

 •1,500 square feet of glass and the pump 

 1 !iave been using is idle. 



If anyone wishing further information 

 in regard to this method will let it be 

 known, I will tell freely what I can in 

 regard to it J. N. Peeby. 



El Eeno, Okla. 



NUMBER OF PIPES REQUIRED. 



How many flow and return pipes do 

 we need in our two houses running north 

 and south? We woiild like to use a 3- 

 inch flow and a 2-ineh return, as we have 

 some of this on hand. We have a No. 3 

 Kroeschell hot water boiler located at 

 the north end of a house 22x80 feet, 

 twelve feet to the ridge, one row of 16x 

 16-inch glass in the west side. One 

 house ninety feet long joins the 80-foot 

 house and boiler shed, thirty teet wide 

 and thirteen feet to the ridge, with no 

 inside wall. There are thirty-two inches 

 of glass in the east side, with ventilators 

 and glass in the north end. We want to 

 hold the temperature at from 45 degrees 

 to 50 degrees. The temperature outside 

 often falls to 22 degrees below zero. 

 These houses will have solid benches. 



F. W. B. 



Your house 22x80 feet can be piped 

 with one 3-inch flow under the ridge, re- 

 turning by twelve 2-inch returns, and the 

 house 30x90 can be piped with a 3-inch 

 flow under the ridge, although I should 

 prefer this to be 3V2-inch, and ten 2-inch 

 returns. The total amount of radiation 

 needed in both houses is between 1,600 

 and 1,700 square feet, which is much 

 less than the rated capacity of your 

 boiler. L. C. C. 



SIZE OF STEAM BOILER. 



What size steam boiler would it take 

 to heat the following houses: Three 

 houses each 20x150 feet with fifteen feet 

 slope, 5-foot walls of concrete; also, a 

 show room on east end connecting all 

 together, 20x40 feet? Which uses the 

 most fuel, a locomotive boiler or a 

 bricked-up tubular? Which is the better 

 way to build houses for general stock, 

 east and west or north and south? The 

 temperature goes to 30 degrees below 

 zero sometimes. E. K. B. 



One thirty horse-power boiler, i. e., a 

 boiler forty-two inches in diameter and 

 twelve feet in length, is just about large 

 enough to care for the radiation you 

 have. To be on the safe side, however, 

 it will be wise to install a forty horse- 



power boiler. The type of boiler here 

 considered is the horizontal tubular 

 bricked-in, which is the most economical 

 type of boiler for heating purposes 

 where less than 150 horse-power is re- 

 quired. There are advocates of north 

 and south houses and equally strong and 

 persistent advocates of east and west 

 houses. Personally, I prefer the north 

 and south ridge. From the standpoint of 

 construction, to give most light, the 

 north and south house has advantages 

 not offered by any other type, but this 

 carries with it a pitch of roof suited to 

 the latitude in which the house is locat- 

 ed, as well as for the crop it is to carry. 



L. C. C. 



PLAN FOR PIPING. 



Will you give us a plan for piping a 

 connected house, 18x106 feet, with hot 

 water for roses f There is a l6-inch glass 

 on one side, two 4-foot side benches, one 

 6-foot ground bench. It is tlirec lv>'X. 

 from the bottom of the side bench to 

 the top of a No. 16 Hitchings boiler, 

 twelve feet to ridge. M. B. 



A good plan for piping the house 18x 

 106 feet would be to run a 3-inch riser 

 or flow pipe under the ridge to the end 

 of the house farthest from the boiler 

 and there divide it to return by two 

 coils consisting of four 2-inch pipes 

 each, one coil under each of the two 

 side benches and four other 2-inch pipes 

 arranged eighteen inches to two feet 

 above the level of the 6-foot solid bed, 

 if such an arrangement can be made to 

 work with the crops to be grown. If 

 pipes over the middle bench are not de- 

 sirable the four pipes can be added to 

 the coils under the side benches, in 

 which case each coil would contain six 

 instead of four 2-inch returns. Twelve 

 2-inch pipes the length of the house are 

 necessary to supply sufficient radiation 

 iu the house. L. C. C. 



REARRANGING OF PIPES. 



We have lately taken over some green- 

 houses in which the piping is very poorly 

 arranged. The system is hot water. 

 Some of the runs are 200 feet; and, to 

 add to the trouble, the main flow, 6-inch, 

 rises seven feet, then falls six feet; 

 then the pipes rise again to the ends of 

 the houses and turn in every direction. 

 We have a powerful boiler but the cir- 

 culation is, of course, bad. We were 

 proposing to pull down and arrange the 

 pipes properly this summer, but if we 

 understand your article on circulating 

 apparatus correctly one of these devices 

 would obviate the necessity of so doing. 

 We have about 2,000 feet of 4-inch pipe. 

 What horse-power motor should we need 

 to run a circulating pump in the main 

 6-inch return? Should we save the cost 

 of running the motor, using an alternat- 

 ing current, by a corresponding decrease 

 iu our coal bill? Of course, we know 

 that the pump would have much more 

 friction to contend with in our bad sys- 

 tem than if the piping were properly 

 arranged, but we want especially to 

 know if it would work satisfactorily 

 under present conditions. E. A. W. 



If, as you state, the piping, particu- 

 larly the flow pipes, are so poorly ar- 

 ranged I doubt if the use of circulat- 

 ing apparatus will make up for the defi- 

 ciencies of the system. Poorly arranged 

 flow pipes which impede the flow tend to 

 cause the water to lose its heat where 

 the circulation is restricted and if this 



is in the flow the heat is thrown off 

 where it is least desired. This will be 

 true, only to a less degree even with the 

 aid of the circulating system. If the 

 flows are not too long, to avoid the use 

 of the pump it will be most satisfactory 

 to rely upon rearranging the pipes to 

 work on a gravity system. The more 

 complicated the system and the more 

 machinery there is to it the more trouble 

 it usually gives. I have no evidence at 

 hand which would warrant the statement 

 that the circulating aparatus would 

 reduce the fuel bill to an amount equal 

 to the cost of operating the motor. I 

 have an idea that it would at least come 

 near doing so, however, and 1 have heard 

 it stated that it would do much better 

 than that. Even if it seems desirable to 

 install the circulating pump I still be- 

 lieve that it would pay to eliminate as 

 many defects in the piping as practica- 

 ble. The power required to drive the cir- 

 culating apparatus depends upon the 

 rate of flow desired and the volume of 

 water to be moved, which without hav- 

 ing a detailed description of your plant 

 I can not estimate. L. C. C. 



NATURAL GAS. 



Will you kindly ask some of your 

 writers if they have used natural gas 

 for fuel? I have a 10-section hot water 

 boiler which I use in heating about 

 5,000 feet of glass. You will do me a 

 great favor in advising me on this sub- 

 ject. A part of my boiler room is under 

 one of my houses; the rest of it is under 

 the potting shed^ which is connected with 

 two houses. Does the odor from natural 

 gas injure plants? G. P. S. 



I have had no personal experience in 

 using natural gas with the cast iron sec- 

 tional boiler under the conditions you 

 mention, but have used it for heating a 

 house with flue in which a direct air 

 intake was provided above the furnace 

 door and the heated air discharged di- 

 rectly in the house. I have also used it 

 under return tubular boilers for generat- 

 ing steam, but in this case the boiler 

 pit was separated from the greenhouses 

 by some distance. If you have good 

 chimneys and use care in turning off 

 and in lighting the gas there will be 

 even less danger of injurious fumes than 

 in the use of coal with a boiler pit ar- 

 ranged as you describe. L. C. C. 



HEATER TOO SMALL. 



I have built a coil heater. It con- 

 sists of nine 2-iiich pipes thirteen 

 feet long, manifold at each end, on two 

 trenches thirteen feet long, one two feet 

 wide and one sixteen inches. My grate 

 is 2x3 feet; the pipes are sixteen inches 

 above the grate. The fire travels to the 

 end of the trench two feet wide, returns 

 in the sixteen-inch trench and enters the 

 flue. Over the two-foot trench I have 

 another coil consisting of five 2-inch 

 pipes with a manifold at each end. The 

 draft is good, the flue 8x12 inches. 

 This heater is intended to heat a house 

 17x100 feet, glass at one end. Side 

 walls are three feet, double boarded, 

 with tar paper lining. I have seven runs 

 of 3-inch pipe, three for flows on 

 one side and four for returns on the 

 other side, all under the benches. The 

 returns are one and one-half feet high- 

 er that the flows and have a de- 

 cline of one and one-half feet. The 

 house runs east and west. The east end 

 is one and one-half feet higher and the 



