The Case for Hot Water Heating 
THE REAL FACTS URGED IN FAVOR OF THE HOT WATER SYSTEM—COMPARISON WITH 
OTHER METHODS ALONG THE LINES OF SERVICE, COST, ECONOMY AND OTHER ADVANTAGES 
by James A. Harding 
Editor’s Note. — “What heating system shall I use?” is the constant query of the home-builder. To assist in solving his difficulty, HOUSE & 
GARDEN has had experts in heating engineering present the advantages of their own favorite types of apparatus. For the first time the whole case 
of the best heating method will be presented to the public as a jury. This article will be followed by others presenting the characteristics and advan¬ 
tages of steam, hot air, and the indirect system. 
A NY demonstration of the advantages of hot-water heating 
necessitates frequent comparisons of the three best known 
types of heating apparatus, viz.: hot-water, steam and hot-air, 
and a word as to ventilation seems appropriate, as in the modern 
scheme of physical life ventilation has become the hand-maiden 
of heating and is almost as important as the question of heat itself. 
Special provision for 
the ventilation of all the 
rooms in a dwelling such 
as has latterly been ad¬ 
vocated in connection with 
hot-air furnace heating is 
prohibitive in a large ma¬ 
jority of houses because 
of its excessive cost. Such 
provision is more in the 
nature of a boosting ap¬ 
pliance to insure the suc¬ 
cessful operation of the 
hot-air furnace (which 
mostly fails to deliver 
heat to un ventilated 
rooms) than it is a ne¬ 
cessity or boon to the 
dwellers in the house. 
It is now the almost 
universal custom of well 
informed people to leave 
one or more windows in 
their bed chamber open 
during the night, which 
excellent practice entirely 
obviates the need of arti¬ 
ficial ventilation through 
pipes or flues, as regards 
at least one-half the in¬ 
terior space of the house. 
In a house of ten rooms 
occupied by a family of 
six adults, for example, 
with a proper allowance 
for the incidental leakage 
or ingress of fresh air, 
which is considerable in 
the best built house, not more than five thousand cubic feet of 
fresh, artificially warmed air per hour need be provided for. 
The necessity for burning an excessive amount of coal to warm 
more fresh air than health and comfort demand, because the sup¬ 
ply of heat from a hot-air furnace can be carried to the rooms 
only by the medium of this excessive air supply, becomes at once 
the Waterloo of that type of heating apparatus. 
The custom of connecting a return air pipe from a large reg¬ 
ister in the hall to the hot-air furnace, in the interest of economy 
of fuel, is pernicious from a hygienic standpoint. The health and 
physical comfort of people in the house during their waking 
hours depend upon a reasonably constant temperature, imparted 
to the air by heating (radiating) surfaces at such a low tempera¬ 
ture as to act moderately and constantly upon the air in contact 
with them. The unpleasant and unhealthful odors from minute 
particles of organic matter, always present in the air indoors, and 
made apparent by contact with the high temperature hot-air fur¬ 
nace and steam radiator, are thus avoided. A radiator should 
never be hotter than 
170° F., even in zero 
weather. 
The intermittent “go¬ 
ing down’’ of the pres¬ 
sure in a steam heating 
apparatus, the conse¬ 
quent condensation of 
steam in the radiator and 
pipes and filling of these 
spaces with air, results 
in a rapid fall of tem¬ 
perature in the rooms. 
Upon the recurrence of 
pressure, a discharge 
into the rooms of a vol¬ 
ume of foul, odoriferous 
air from the air valves 
takes place, sometimes 
with an accompaniment 
of noise, as the steam, 
water of condensation 
and air agitate the radi¬ 
ator. To add to these, 
the rooms are often over¬ 
heated. 
The modern h o t— 
water heating apparatus 
maintains a steady, 
noiseless and positive 
circulation throughout, 
with moderate tempera¬ 
tures of the radiating 
surfaces. 
In the earlier history 
of hot-water heating (as 
far back as 1840) the 
water was heated under 
pressure to high temperatures, and that method is followed to 
some extent at the present time in the interest of reducing the 
size and first cost of the apparatus; but it has been conclusively 
proven by physicians and others, that the “open tank” hot-water 
system chiefly in vogue today, with its lower temperature of radi¬ 
ators, is infinitely superior from the standpoint of health. 
The flexibility of a heating apparatus in successfully meeting 
changes in weather conditions is an important consideration in 
the interest of comfort. 
While steam and hot-water systems are equally positive in the 
delivery of heat to the points of use, the former requires a cer¬ 
tain constant condition of the fire in order to generate steam 
Radiator enamel is now obtainable to match any color of woodwork or wall¬ 
covering. The radiator here is less obtrusive as it fits in with the paper’s coloring 
and striped pattern 
