Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-11-07
OIL HEATING
HASFUTURE
HERE, BELIEF
Availability of Crude Makes
System Possible; One
Plant Installed.

The low price of Kevin-Sunburst
crude, the opening of a refinery In
Great Falls and the expectation of a
low rate on shipments from the field
to Great Falls are the combination that
is turning the thoughts of house own
ers of the city as well as apartment
house men and industrial plants toward
fuel oil or crude for heat.
Plumbers Of Great Falls report that
there have been many calls upon them
to figure costs of the installation OF
heating units in houses and burners
in the coal type furnaces. One such
plant has been installed in a residence
in Great Falls and is said to be giving
made with the price on Cat Greek
distillate in mind, 10 cents a gallon,
and this is said not to have made the
cost of operation prohibitive. 1t will
now be possible, it was pointed out,
to provide either Kevin-Sunburst crude
or the distillate from the Great Falls
refinery at less than half this amount.
and the possibility is that the fuel oil
may prove cheaper than coal.
Expect Rate Reduction
Based on crude at 80 cents a barrel
at Sunburst and a present freight rate
OIL IL tSut6 u No pOaANS
Sunburst to Great Falls, the price of
Cat Greek distillate could be cut in
half delivered at the home. The rail
way is expected to make q rate on
crude from the field that Will be in
the n~eighborhood of Is cents a hun-
dred pounds. This figure is arrived at
on the basis of comparative distance,
the rate from Winnett to Lewistown
being II cents a hundred.
+. The Great Northern will have the
further incentive to give a low rate
due to the desire to draw as much of
the freight in crude south over its lines
instead of north over Canadian rail
ways. If the rate is set at even near
this amount, Great Falls householders
will be able to purchase crude at per-
haps less than 81 a barrel. and it is
believed that distillate will be avail
able at about the same price.
Fuel oil advocates for heating argue
that it provides a more flexible and
easily adjusted form of heating. 1t
lends itself well to a system which per-
mits the heating of the home through
automatic heat regulators, maintaining
an even temperature through the day
and lowering it at night. In the one
house in Great Falls that now has oil
heating, the burner is attached to an
ordinary hot water heating system. the
fire box of the furnace being built up
with fire brick. In heating the house
so far this season, the fire is lighted
only twice a day. for an hour in the
morning and again in the late after
noon. 1t obviates dirt from the base
ment, it is argued, and although 1t
makes some noise due to the sound OF
air being fed to the burner, this noise
is not heard in the house outside of the
basement. it is said.
Oil men Of Great Falls who have
lived in oil districts are probably the
leading opponents of the fuel oil for
heating. Some of these have already
made plans for heating their homes
with fuel oil. Fuel oil is used u%niver-
sally in Los Angeles, Calf, and es-
pecia1ly in apartment house heating.
throughout the business district, fuel
oil is used and in the residence dis
trict, the houses are supplied with
storage tanks in the rear of the
houses.
Ford Factory Uses System
Detroit has been one of the latest
of the cities more distant from the oil
fields to take I'D oil as a heating fuel.
The Ford factories have taken the lead
in this connection. The Fordson facto-
ries. which are the newer unit of the
Ford plant. are fitted almost through
out with oil burners for heat and in
dustriaI purposes. The main Ford
plant has Been substituting the oil
burners in several instances for the
coal units.
One firm has recently opened in
Detroit for the installation of oil
burning heating plants in homes and
this has been followed by the install
lation of several thousand units.
While oil men do not hold that the
oil burners will displace coal burning,
or even make any serious inroad into
coal consumption in Great Falls. at
least for the present year, they hold
that with the development of r~efiner-
les in the northern part Of the state
and plentiful fuel oil att reasonable
rates, it will become one of the indus
trial assets Of the community.