Central Heating

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 681, 5 June 1929, Page 14

Central Heating

BY WATER OR HOT AIR Equal Distribution of Warmth ANYONE embarking’ on a central-heating scheme is first called upon to make up his mind whether it is intended to be the sole or principle means of warming, or whether it is to provide what may be ealled a background of warmth to open fires. A further point to be decided is whether central-heating is t-o be independent of other, aims, such as domestic liot-water supply or local heating by the boiler fire.

Speaking generally, says a writer in “Homes and Gardens,’’ it will be found that for anything more than the small house, where more than one continuously burning fire would possibly be an extravagance, it is better to separate entirely the heating system from any connection with hot-water supply. This for the excellent reason that hot water is constantly needed—in summer as in winter—and a boiler which is equal to combining an adequate supply for winter heating with the all-the-year-round supply of hot water must he something more than sufficient when the latter demand alone falls on it. There are, however, specially designed boilers which give combined services in houses of medium size and in some circumstances these are useful; but complete separation of the heating plant is in most cases preferable. The utilisation of the boiler fire for direct local heating is quite another thing, since heating is ts functon, from any standpoint. Most heating boilers are of such a character that their relegation to a stokehold or boiler-room is a matter of course, and the supply of fuel and the need for periodic stoking, with its attendant noise and dust, make this always the better plan. But there are types of hot water stoves which may be quite fittingly installed as a hall fii-e, giving the appearance as well as the fact of cosy comfort, and

there are types of boilers which are quite seemly in a hall or work-room. The central-heating distributors which hold the field circulate hot water and warmed air. Low-pressure hot water —that is to say, water subject only to the pressure due to the head of water in the pipes—is the most commonly used and the most generally useful. Warm air, however, supplied from a basement furnace which, burning coke, draws fresh air to an outer jack€it surrounding the heated firepot and delivers it in large volume through a grating in some central position such as the hall, has manifest advantages for installation in old houses where the runs of piping w T ould be difficult and costly to arrange, and might mar good panelling or other interesting features. Such a system is particularly suitable where the hall, stairs and passages are required to be warmed, and there is pothing to compare with it for economy and ease of installation. A hot-water heating system depending for distribution on pipes and radiators in which a circulation must be maintained takes more scheming. While it is not now essential that the boiler-room should be below the ground floor level, where that is possible, circulation is usually much simplified—particularly in houses not planned for central heating—for the reason that circulating pipes will fail to mantain the necessary flow if dips are formed; and the lowered heating chamber permits return circulations to cross doorways by carrying them below the floor. DROP SYSTEM BEST In installing a hot-water centralheating system in an existing house it is generally easiest and most efficient to adopt what is known as the “drop” system, conveying the heated water as directly and rapidly as may be to the highest point of the system by a main rising flow pipe, and distributing in the roof space in such a manner that vertical drop pipes in carefully chosen positions may serve all the radiators needed in passing the various floor levels, subsequently reuniting at the ground floor or basement ceiling level and returning the partially cooled water to the boiler, where it is again heated and will continue to circulate as before. \ - In most cases the actual effective heating will be done by radiators, of which there are new typds which can be tucked neatly away in window seats, as well as the more ordinary types. There is also, however, the invisible panel system, in which walls or ceilings may be heated by pipe coils bedded in the plaster. This system has many possibilities, and is now receiving special attention.