Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1922-12-12
Editorial Comment
Electric Homo Heating
(Boston Herald)

Some day we shall heat our
houses by electricity produced from
water power" The prediction is Of
ten heard. We contemplate the idea
with anticipation. No trouble and
no toll, no dirt and no inconvenience;
the company does the work at the
plant; we merely twist the button,
enjoy the heat, and pay the bills.
The one question is how much will
the bills amount to? Now comes
Prof. F. z. Austin of Hanover, n.
H., telling us this idea is all a
dream, that "such a condition can
never be realized" In an article in
the Granite State Free Press he
says: cat present a few houses in
America are heated by electricity
but these are owned by presidents or
directors Of electrical companies"
He then proceeds at length to
deal with amperes and volts, watts
and lilowatts, horsepowers and foot
pounds, in quantities ranging up
from hundreds to billions, and hav-
ing made his computations in open
print where anybody with a taste
for mathematics and some little
knowledge of electrical science may
check them up, he announces his con-
illusions. These are unfavorable to
the electrical heating idea.
For the heating of houses he says
the plan is Every efficient but eX-
pensive" A small electric heater
equipped with refectors to localize
the heat, used during short periods,
Will enable the householder to let
his big heating plant stay idle and
save him fuel and money. The saw
ing will be greater if these heaters
for intermittent service are charged
at the power rates rathep than the
lighting rates.
But for continuous services the
use of these heaters runs into money.
The all day cost is set down at ~
cents for one small room in moderate
weather. In very cold weather,
such a heater would not keep even
an average room at living temper
aturc. Mr.. Austin reckons that coal
for ordinary winter heating at SIS
a ton-presumably the North Coun-
try price-will heat four rooms at
about one dollar a day. His state
ment is: Heating continuously with
coal costs less than fourth as
much as heating continuously with
electricity even at low power rates"
He then goes on to examine the
matter from the viewpoint not or
the householder but of the electric
company. Consider the case of
Lebanon, N. H., where each home
burns an average Of six tons of coal
during the six months of cold
weather. Mr.. Austin figures on the
number Of heat units in each pound
of coal and deduces the horsepower
the local electric plant would have to
furnish in order to heat 500 Lebanon
homes. He finds that If the plant
were operated at it's maximum capa-
city it probably could not furnish
half the amount that would be re-
quired, and he adds that zone can
readily imagine what horsepower
might be needed on an exceedingly
cold day when several times the
average power might be demanded"
The conclusion is that mo great
error would be made in the state
ment that were all the available wa
ter power in New England fully de-
veloped there would be insufficient
power to heat a tenth Of the build
ms. in these states"
If this argument is sound. and the
accuracy of the calculations experts
must verify, then we shall have to
continue to do our heating through
the real winter weather with coal,
Of coke or oil, or wood, while using
perhaps as a convenience at times
of comparatively. mild temperature
the electric heater that radiates heat
under the control Of some rejecting
dayica