Page:Popular Mechanics 1928 11.pdf/30

 

HEN you tell the average person that electrical heating has made revolutionary progress within the past few years, he thinks of his domestic furnace, now burning coal, oil or natural gas, and asks whether the time has come to discard these fuels for something better. Let us therefore explain that the new era of electric heat does not yet affect to any marked extent the problem of keeping your house warm in winter.

The "house without a chimney" flourishes on certain reclamation projects in the west, where cheap electricity is a by-product of irrigation under the auspices of a paternal government. It prevails to some extent in Europe, where water-power electricity is equally cheap. Electric "heat reservoirs" have been installed in many Swiss and German houses. These are huge tile-incased stoves, of ancient pattern but with electric heating elements placed inside instead of the usual coal or wood fires, to heat the heavy slabs of slate or soapstone that compose the walls. Current is supplied to these devices during the off-peak hours of the night at low rates, and they store enough heat to last all day. A few "all-electric" houses in England are heated on a similar basis, hot water being used to retain the heat.

Generally speaking, however, the heating of entire houses by electricity does not yet loom on the horizon, though small portable electric heaters for single room—especially bathrooms and bedrooms—are common. Even as applied to ordinary household cooking, electric heat is still unable to compete with coal and gas in most communities. Its uses in the home are mainly in small appliances that consume but little current, including toasters. 