Interesting Facts on House Heating 
By J. B. chase 
O NE who contemplates building a home that 
shall satisfy, can well turn for a time from 
the contemplation of arrangement of room, 
interior decoration, woodwork finish and the thou¬ 
sand and one other details that delight the home 
builder, and consider carefully the more vital and no 
less interesting problem of heating. This rigorous 
climate of ours demands artificial heat. The home 
builder’s problem is to secure that type which will 
give greatest comfort and prove most economical. 
While the experience of many home builders has 
been that it pays in the end to leave all technical 
plans in t li e 
hands of a ca¬ 
pable architect, 
or building en¬ 
gineer, even to 
the selection of 
proper equip¬ 
ment, there are 
few questions 
that arise equal 
to the interest 
and fascination 
found in choos¬ 
ing the proper 
method of heat¬ 
ing; the selec¬ 
tion of hot air, 
hot water or 
steam; the 
choice between 
different styles 
of equipment; 
the artistic placing of radiators, perhaps, or a caref ul 
consideration of direct, semi-direct or indirect 
methods of warming different rooms. The question 
of heating will take on many interesting phases. 
There is really no feature of home building more 
liable to bring disappointment, if not carefully pro¬ 
vided for while plans are being made. Too many 
people sacrifice heating for other equipment or 
furnishings. 
Modern heating methods have been remarkably 
developed during the past forty years. The fireplace 
is still in vogue for reasons of sentiment and is an ex¬ 
cellent means of ventilation, but its value as a method 
of heating is no longer recognized. The sheet iron 
stove is rarely seen now, not even in the crossroads 
grocery store, f uel has become too costly, and the 
luxury-loving American people have demanded more 
satisfactory means of keeping all sides warm at once. 
The hot air furnace has evolved from a sheet iron 
stove that was set in a central hallway or central room 
and had smoke Hues and, later, hot air tubes passing 
through the different rooms. The greater economy 
and convenience of caring for one fire, instead of 
several, has made this heating method very popular. 
To-day the furnace is placed in the cellar and is so 
constructed that the smallest possible amounts of 
dust and obnoxious gases are sent into the living- 
rooms. Careful practice in proportioning size of 
pipes, locating them in the center of the building, etc., 
has done much to overcome the faults of hot air heat¬ 
ing. It has been difficult to conduct beated air to 
remote rooms, 
against exposed 
walls and evenly 
distribute it 
into the several 
rooms without 
drafts. 
In the a p - 
proved type of 
furnaces made 
to-day, cold air 
is drawn from 
the outside and 
passed over the 
heated surfaces 
around the fire- 
p o t. Cj r e a t 
care must be ex¬ 
ercised then, in 
the selection of 
such apparatus, 
to see that the 
fire-pot is made of material that will stand intense 
heat for a number of years. Otherwise the apparatus 
will be liable to need frequent repairs, while there will 
be the increasing danger of getting too much burned 
or devitalized and gas laden air into the living-rooms. 
Low pressure steam heating is most highly de¬ 
veloped in America. It consists of a boiler, in wTich 
steam is produced, and a system of w^rought iron pipes 
through which dry steam is forced under low pres¬ 
sure to expanded pipe surfaces or ornamental radi¬ 
ators placed in different rooms to be heated. The 
system is entirely closed, pockets of air being vented 
through automatic air valves placed on the radiators 
and at the end of long runs of piping. Sometimes 
apparatus is installed to keep the entire system free 
from air so that steam will circulate at lower tempera¬ 
tures in the vacuum thus produced. 
While its appearance may be forbidding because of 
steam gauge, safety valve, automatic regulator, gauge 
The old house is comfortable if well heated. Modern apparatus costs 
less to operate than stoves 
65 
