A manual of home-making

A bright luekel or aluminum kettle will cool very much more slowly than a black kettle. On a eoaf or wood stove or directly over a eoal or wood fire, a kettle is heated largely by heat radi- ated from the stove or fire*; therefore, if the bottom is black the kettle will heat more rapidly than if bright. Over a gas, gaso- line, or similar blue flame the condition of the bottom will not make so mueii dilTerenee, since here most of the heat is received by contact with the hot gases, Tlie best kettle for general iise is, therefore, one with the bottom black and the remainder polished, but for use on a gii8 stove it makes little difference whether the bottom is black or not, COMPARATIVE COST OF VARIOUS METHODS OP HEATING The ideal heating system is one that will give a uniform tem- perature throughout tiic house, if desireth Furnacas are more likely to produce this re.sult than are stoves, A stove sehlom heats more than two rooms and often only one. A **drum," or radiator, for utilizing otherwise wasted heat, will remove the ehill from an upstairs room but generally will not give warmth enough for a sitting-room. The care of several stoves is greater than that of one central plant. TABLE X. — CxjMrARisijN rU:T\VKEN Stov^ks and ITot-air Furnace Method 0/ healing Initial eont including in- Atallaliofi Coftl used duT' ing one year Nundicr of rooms healed Two attjv<*M Hot^ir fumacf* f90, and drums for upper rooms, m $!00 to 115(1 12 t<* 14 tons of more ox- pen.-^ive von\ 8 to 12 tons 5 StolO Uneven Fairly evi»n I I I 1 NEAT AND LIGHT A hot-air system is the cheapest system to install but the most expensive in the amount of fuel used. A steam system costb about twice as much as hot-air but it requires less fuel. A hot-water system costs about three times as much as hot- air but requires less fuel than docs either a hot-air or a steam system. FACTORS GOVERNING CONSUMPTION OP FUEL AND CONVENIENCE OP OPERATION* Climate, Variable w^cather and high winds make difficult the economi- cal use of fuel and coovenient operation. Size and type of dweUing. Fuel consumption varies with the size of the house, the number of rooms heated, the thoroughness of construction, to a eertaiii extent the building material, and the distribution of the radia- tors. Location of dweUing, A house standing alone on a hill requires much more heat than one in a closely built row^ standing in a hollow. HecUing and venliluling system used. Convenience of operation of any house-heating apparatus is largely dependent on the systeni of heating and ventilation em- ployed. The cost of heating will also depend, but to a less de- gree, on the type of equipment. Fuel economy and convenience are against a separate fire in each room unless the house is small or only a small part of it is to }w warmed, except in those locali- ties where natural gas is available at low rates or tlie duration of cold weather is brief. In comparatively few homes is any special provision made for removing the foul air, leakage from windows and doors beinp; the usual reliance, particularly in a house heated by a hot-air furnace. If an indirect steam or hot- • Condcnsf*d from Saving Fuel in Heating a House. L. P. Brcclvcnridge and S. B. Fiagg. Bur. of Mii]£s, U. iS. DapU of the Interior, Tech. Paper 97. I 194 A MANUAL OF HOME-MAKING