Evening star., 1941-01-25
Circulating Fan
Improves Efficiency
iIHeaters
Modern Stoves Superior
To Their Ancestors
In Appearance
BY DOROTHY DUCAS AND
ELIZABETH GORDON.


The old oil stove amt what It
used to be. Perhaps you remember
the days when you did homework,
sitting close to the Oil stove in the
kitchen of your house. You had to
sit close, for when you got several
feet away the beneficent heat,
making even arithmetic homework
easier, somehow seemed to vanish
But new oil stoves have borrowed
the principle of forced air central
heat. They have built into them
large electrically driven fans that
spray the heat in all directions
through the room in which the stove
stands and through other rooms as
well.
An oil stove-or heater, as it is
called nowadays-With a built-in
rotor unit" avoids entirely the I'M
comfortable direct blast of hot air
close to the heater, and maintains
uniform flow of warm air through
out the room. The circulating de-
vice is mounted on the front wall
of the heater and plugged into any
l10-volt, 60-cycle alternating cur
rent outlet.
II for any reason you do not want
TO run the rotor unit" it can be
turned off and the heater operated
without the circulating device. In
summer you can operate the rotor
unit" without heat, for its acts like
any eight -bladed, powerful fan,
stirring up dead air and providing
extra cooling circulation.
The new oil heaters We have been
looking at are good-looking affairs,
finished in brown porcelain and
dark brown crystone, with highly
polished grilles of cast aluminium.
They have rustproof porcelain
enameled humidifier pans in them,
and six-gallon oil storage tanks,
with gauges and filters. Two styles
of burners are available-pot and
sleeve. The pot type burns No. /
furnace or range oil. The sleeve
type burner uses range oil or kero-
sene. Both require flue connections.
Every one of these heaters sold
Is tagged to tell clearly its heating
capacity, so you never need buy one
which is undersized for the space
you want to make comfortable. The
heaters cost around $100.
Push Button Gas Control.
II you have been considering
heating your domestic hot water by
gas, but hesitate because you are
worried about the fuel bill in q
region where gas is not sold at its
lowest rate, you might investigate
the new hot-water heating control
system which can be turned on and
of from the kitchen or bathroom.
A simple pushbutton on the wall
of the room where you want to use
hot water gives you easy control
over how much gas you are using
to heat water. Push it and a red
indicator gloWs, showing that the
water heater is working Push it
again when you are through wash
ing dishes or your bathtub is full.
A thermostat on the water tank
automatically will shut off the gas
when the water is hot enough, if
you forget to push the button again.
The button Is connected with an
electrically operated gas valve and
pilot light, and operates from a low
voltage doorbell transformer. 1t
works on alternating current only.
For homes wired with direct current.
dry-cel batteries can be used. In
stallation is comparable to regular
doorbell wiring.
The advantages of this kind OF
automatic gas water heating are,
of course, economy in the use of gas,
elimination Of the nuisance of run
ming down to the basement to turn
on the gas heater and immediate
supplies of hot water whenever you
want them.
The unit most often used in mod
erately priced small homes costs
around $40, complete except for in
stallation costs. 1t Is said by its
makers to result in a saving of from
30 to SO per cent over non push
button automatic gas water heating |
Systems.
Duct Insulation.
II you have Warm-air heat, which |
comes to you through ducts, this
item will interest you. Do you know
there are three reasons for insulat-
ing the ducts?
In the first place, you save actual
units of heat, for uninsulated supply
ducts tend to radiate and dissipate
heat en- route from basement to reg
listers. 1t is expensive to warm the
floors and walls of your house, how
ever inadvertently, before heat is
delivered to your rooms. Insulation
wrapped around the ducts keeps
the warmth inside the ducts.
Second, cold ducts-that is, the
cold-air lines-coming in contact
with warm air can cause condensa-
ton. Rusting, sweating or dripping
ducts may result. This is particu-
larly true with ducts used for COOL
ing in the summer time but also pos
sibh with return ducts in which the