USE OF GAS FIRES.

Hokitika Guardian, 17 December 1924, Page 3

USE OF GAS FIRES.

SAVES COST OF CHIMNEYS. Economy in modern bungalow liuilding is claimed by gas engineers as an ideal attainable by the use of gas fuel. As a general rule, these bungalows are

not very large, and dillieut.v is often experienced in providing sleeping accommodation for servants. While in some cases there is space for a bedroom for one servant, in others the provision of this room is a matter of great cliffierity. or is altogether out of the question. F<»r this and other reasons, therefore, many bungalow dwellers prefer, or are compelled, to employ only daily helps. It is this servant problem which perhaps more than anything else makes it absolutely essential to equip the bungalow at the outset with labour-saving cooking, wafer-heating and heating appliances. M'e say “at the outset” advisedly, because only by deciding (before tlie plans of the bungalow are prepared) on the systems to be adopted for heating and cooking, can the best results lie obtained for the expenditure of capital involved. The following practical notes and the illustrations of a number of well-equip-ped bungalows are designed to interest and help all who are aliout to luiild bungalows. The information given will be of service alike to architects and

binders who design and build bungalows for sale, and to private individuals who are about to place an order for a bungalow incorporating their own ideas and ideals as to design and equipment.

Let us consider, first the heating of the bungalow, bearing in mind the fact that, as a general rule, only one maid or one daily help will he employed. Tn this ease, coal and all the drudgery and dirt involved in its use are to lie entirely or almost entirely eliminated. Gas will he used to heat all the rooms, or, alternatively, to heat all rooms used intermittently—the execution in the later ease 1 being the living-room, whore some people still prefer, (for sentimental or other reasons) to have an oueii coal lire. This point being settled, the flues for the fires should receive consideration by the architect. This is an important matter, because it involves the saving or loss on building costs of from £7 to £lO a room. In these days, when money is so hardly earned, it is obviously u financially unsound nolicv to spend money ell coal grates, coal fire Hues, chimney stacks and so forth, when it known for a certainty that gas fires (which require only small flues built ill the thickness of the wall. or. if a slight breast nrojeclion is desired, with a small -It inch janili) will ultimately be installed. On small bungalows of I lie type, costing about 980!) each, a builder estimates that lie saves approximately £7 per room liv building gas lire Hues in Hie wall, and fixing straight away, a special combination lnnntlepioee, gas fire am! raised hearth. Of this sum. £1 renresents the saving in brickwork and bricklayers’ labour and £3 the difference in cost between purchasing and installing tli sgonhtnniniucbino roliodlf an ordinary coal grate with mantelpiece'. tiled hearth and register. This £7 does not represent the total saving elfeeted. for ill four eases out of five, nowadays, even if a coal lire grate is originallv provided, orders for a gas tiro to be fixed in, or in front of. the coal grate, are given later on. involving an extra expenditure which varies in accordance with the type of gas fire chosen. Further, in some cases work never looks quite so well as if plans had been made at the outseL for tlie gas fire.

But important as these economies iniiloubtediVv are. they by no means represent tlie whole of the advantages which result from the proper planning of bungalows for gas fires. Take an ordinary bedroom fitted with gas fire. Had a (•liimney-brcast for a coal fire been, built ill the position occupied by the gas lire, this would have taken un valuable lloor space, and would leave reduced the air space in the room bv approximately 30 cubic feet. M’liere it is a question of building very large reruns, this loss of air space would peril aps not lie a very important matter, but ill the ease of bedrooms of not very large dimensions, every cubic foot of additional space gained is important.