HOUSE AND GARDEN 
November, 
igr r 
from atmospheric pressure to two pounds gauge pressure. 
The temperatures of the radiators in ordinary systems of steam 
heating will range from 21 2° to 220°, whereas the atmospheric 
conditions prevailing out of doors may vary from 50° F. to io° 
below zero. 
With hot-water heating the temperature of the radiators may 
be maintained at any degree from say 8o° to considerably above 
200° if necessary. 
Again, after the fire has been banked or otherwise regulated 
for the night, there is a constant supply of heat from the lire to 
the radiators, so that in the morning the temperature of the water 
will be within io° to 20° or so of that required for maintaining 
the desired 70° in the house. 
In the steam heater after the fire is banked at night, the steam 
pressure goes down and the house cools off to a low temperature. 
In reply to them, it is urged that it is possible to get up the 
temperature quickly with steam heat. While this is true, it is of 
negative advantage in comparison with the greater one of having 
a constant temperature which obviates the need of forcing the 
apparatus, and the consequent waste of fuel which continues 
while the heater is operated under forced or excessive draught. 
In vapor or vacuum systems of heating the variable tempera¬ 
tures of the radiators possible, constitute a valuable claim to 
superiority in the interest of comfort and economy. If such 
systems were designed to employ as large radiating surfaces as in 
modern hot-water heating and not to depend upon steam at high 
temperatures during excessively cold weather, then such sys¬ 
tems would approach the excellence of hot-water heating: — pro¬ 
vided, of course, that the vacuum necessary to produce vapor of 
a wide range of temperatures were not dependent upon the inter¬ 
mittent action of an automatic device, nor the positive action of 
an expensive mechanical or electrical device. 
As to the hot-air furnace system of heating it is urged, and 
with apparent reason, that the hot-air furnace supplies fresh air 
to the house through its cold-air box and hot-air pipes, while di¬ 
rect radiator systems of heating do not supply fresh out-door 
air. 
When, as stated above, a limited volume of air only is required 
for a family of ordinary size in order to maintain a given stan¬ 
dard of purity throughout the house, it will be seen that this can 
be obtained by means of one or two indirect hot-water radiators 
furnishing fresh out-door air to the halls or principal living rooms 
of the house, thus providing heat and ventilation at once. 
The hot -water 
radiator obtains its 
heat from the source 
of supply, the heat¬ 
er, unhampered by 
effect of w i n d ; 
whereas, as is well 
known, with furnace 
heating, rooms ex¬ 
posed to pressure of 
prevailing cold 
winds do not obtain 
warm air through 
the furnace pipes. 
Again, with the 
hot-air furnace the 
air passes over its 
iron (usually cast 
iron) surfaces and 
takes up in this pas¬ 
sage, coal gas and 
Almost every corner of the room may be particles of dust, 
especially provided for from the hundred such as moulding 
designs of the modern radiator sand and accumu¬ 
lated deposits from 
the street; which im¬ 
purities more than 
counterbalance the 
advantage to be de¬ 
rived from the air, 
originally fresh 
then entering the 
furnace, but which 
reaches the rooms 
considerably im¬ 
paired. 
In tbe matter of 
leakage of coal gas 
from the interior of 
a hot-air furnace 
into the fresh air 
passages immediate¬ 
ly surrounding it 
and communicating 
with the roo m s 
through pipes, the 
reasons for it are 
easily comprehended 
when the physics of furnace construction are understood. A 
cheaply-constructed furnace is extremely pernicious in its in¬ 
sidious promotion of ill-health and it would seem that if civic 
authority were as wide awake in the enforcement of ordinances 
for the exclusion of coal gas from our homes as they are in the 
matter of sewer gas, then the cheap hot-air furnace would be 
driven out of existence. 
With the hot-air furnace the temperatures of its several parts 
when in operation will frequently vary through a range from 
iooo° F. to 200° F. This inherent condition renders it necessary 
not only to build the furnace in sections, but to assemble its sev¬ 
eral parts with unsealed elastic joints, so that inequalities of ex¬ 
pansion and contraction will not cause a fracture. In the com¬ 
bustion of coal the force of air entering the draught-doors and 
the expansion of gases in the furnace create an internal pres¬ 
sure with every charge of fuel which will overcome the resistance 
of the joints in the best made furnace. 
It will be of interest to note the reasons why hot-water heating 
is more economical than the other types, and in considering these 
reasons it should be borne in mind that comparisons are here 
made between systems which embody all features necessary to 
express the highest standard of each type. 
It is convenient to base comparisons upon concrete examples, 
and a country house of ten rooms will afford an average basis of 
calculation. 
A hot-water heating apparatus for such a house should cost 
approximately $475. 
The interest on this amount per year at six per cent, is $28.50. 
Such an apparatus will require about nine tons of coal for the 
^season which at six dollars per ton makes a total of $54.00 per 
year for fuel, and a total annual expense of $82.50. 
A steam-heating apparatus for the same house will cost about 
$375, and the interest on this amount will be $22.50. This ap¬ 
paratus will require about twelve tons of coal at a cost of $72.00. 
In steam-heating the fluctuations of pressure occasion alter¬ 
nate rapid expansion and contraction of the pipes and other parts 
at frequent intervals, which promote leaks. Radiator valves 
should be repacked at least once a year. Automatic air valves 
are prolific sources of trouble and expense. Damper regulators 
need repairing and the alternate filling of the system with steam 
and air promote the rapid oxidation or rusting of the interior of 
pipes and radiators, and their gradual disintegration. 
(Continued on page 335) 
The window-seat is only one of tbe means 
whereby a radiator may be placed almost 
entirely out of sight 
