Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1921-02-04
CENTRAL HEATING SYSTEM MAKES
 GOOD

Heating residences and business houses from a central plant is so at tractive in principle, especially as fuel difficulties increase, and so often fails in practice, that an analysis of one thoroughly successful installation of this kind is we'll worth while. In the unusual undertaking under considera- tion, success has attended the finan- cial as we'll as the service side of the operation; and further interest is con- tributed by the fact that it is muni cipally owned and conducted utility, which takes care of the electric-light- ing demand and the local water sup ply as well as the community heating.
 The village of Waterloo, Wis.,, in which this service is installed, has a population around 1,600 and boasts three blocks of business buildings, mostly two-story. The central plant is about 300 it. from the center of this group In it is a 150-hp. Corliss type engine, belted to a 100-kw., 2,300- volt generator, and duplex tandem compound water-supply pump of gin. stroke. Steam for all trhee services is supplied by two 125-hp. tubular underfeed boilers.
 From the plant to the distributing center ar can Sin. low-pressure steam pipe, a Ain. return for condensation water, and 2-in. high-pressure pipe for booster purposes and to supply consumers desiring 100-lb. steam. Branching and extending one block in each direction from the distributing center are a Ain, a 2-in., and a lin. pipe--a total of HOO it. in heating mains. All these lines are covered with 1 F in. asbestos with a canvas jacket, wrapped with bare copper wire, coted with asphalt paint, and run through duct buried in a concrete lined trench, with -dead-air space around each pipe. Manholes and drains are arranged to prevent any accumulation. of water.
 The entire cost of this plant, ready for service, was $12,2OO. For the first season the heating division of the utility had only four customers, but they were large, and paid in $50S for five months service. Now there are 46 heating customers, including two who use high-pressure steam Additions of connections and meters for the new subscribers have brought the plant valuation up to $13,197, and the total net income last season was $14,285. On these figures, it is cal culated that the plant now has paid for itself after four years of opera tion, and that consumers have enjoyed a price for their heat equivalent to $4.S0 a ton for the best grade of H. linois coal, if used in their own fur naces This is computed to represent saving of about $3,60O a year.
 The remarkable success of this in stallation is attributed to the fact that expert engineering attention was given to it's design and arrangement, based on critical study of local con- ditions. And conversely, it is argued that.th numerous failures of similar attempts, large and small, are due solely to the common lack of that tech nical consideration demanded by any public-utility under taking as the req sonable price of satisfactory service and investment returns. It is inter- estiing to note, in conclusion, that an installation of the same kind is now being made in Belvidere, H., city of some 5000 population.