Femina, A Work for Every Woman

by John A. Miller

There are objections against warming one or two rooms of a house and leaving the others cold. A warm sitting room, while the halls and bedrooms remain cold and chilly, is a very fruitful source of cold and catarrhs.

There is a vast difference between heating for health, and heating to have warm rooms; in the former, the warm rooms would be incidental to health and comfort, while in the latter you might sacrifice health for warm rooms.

Heating by hot air has serious objections that may be briefly stated as follows: Fresh air passing through or around red hot furnaces, becomes so rarefied that it no longer contains sufficient oxygen for healthful breathing purposes.

The expansion and contraction of the furnace allows the escape of the noxious gases of combustion which become unavoidably mixed with the hot air that is to heat the dwelling, and thus vitiate the air that is to be breathed, and should there be any malaria from defective sewerage in the basement that, too, would be circulated with the heated air.

It seems also to be impossible to distribute hot air equally to all the rooms of a house through long flues, for the hot air is choked off at the registers by the counter currents of cold air from the rooms on the side of the house exposed to the winds, while the protected side is always overheated.

I have practically demonstrated, in my own residence, that hot water is the most simple and efficient means of heating a dwelling for both health and comfort, and for several reasons: There is no danger of overheating, and there is no possibility of vitiating the air, because the temperature of the hot water is always lower than even the boiling point.

With a proper distribution of the heated water through pipes, and radiators of sufficient heating surface, all rooms can be warmed to an equal temperature. Another consideration is the economy in fuel when properly constructed heaters are used, for the water readily absorbs the heat and retains it for hours after the fire has ceased to burn. Unlike steam heating, a moderate fire will warm the house in moderate weather. Hot water heating does not exclude a practical scientific system of ventilation. There is no danger from explosion, nor from fire, the plant is absolutely odorless and noiseless, and requires neither mechanical skill nor close attention to run it. There is no doubt of the durability of a hot water system, for if properly constructed it should last as long as the building, and the cost is less than a number of mantels with the necessary flues.

The most comfortable average temperature for living rooms is from 65 to 70 degrees Fahr., for hospitals and sick rooms a higher temperature is generally required, say from 75 to 80 degrees Fahr.