Computing heating area is not easy--because the shapes of rooms, kinds and varieties and areas of walls and door openings come into the problem, to say naught of the badly fitted windows and doors permitting draughts, etc. So you see the heating and ventilating engineer has a job that the amateur or even the steam fitter knows not of. (See Chapter XXXIII). Usually the householder isn’t asked about her heating plant at all. The contractor, architect and builder fix it all up. But--we don’t hold with this. You have to live with your heating plant, they do not--and it’s pretty much on your head that discomfort falls. Were we building we would be quite intimate with the heating end of life, in fact take a heated and intensely feverish interest in it. Therefore, after your plans, etc. are hatched, call on a heating engineer for a few suggestions, and then go to your contractor and see from whom he is to buy your boiler and what type. Then tell him you require certain things in your boiler which we have listed “here below” for your winter of content. PRINCIPAL OF HEATING Steam heat is, of course, heating by means of circulating steam through pipes to radiators. This is affected by a one pipe system sometimes, or a two pipe. The steam ascending from the boiler in one pipe and condensing into water falls back into boiler in same pipe. In the two system arrangement the steam ascends in one and returns in the other. The one pipe system, of course, is cheaper but takes skill in setting, as the pitch of it (the angle) must be perfection. In the radiators the steam condenses and returns in separate pipes in the two pipe system. Hot water heating is the circulation of hot water through pipes to radiators. The heated water being lighter rises and as it cools in giving off kind heat to you, it falls back again into the boiler where it is again heated and takes another “rise” and so it circulates through its system. Therefore, in all heating systems there are two main divisions: the generation part of boiler and the circulation part of piping throughout the house. Both parts must be perfect to insure perfection of heating. The first part dependent on many factors, the second on a few more. In the hot water system an expansion tank is always placed at the top of the house in order that the overflow can be taken care of. BOILER PURCHASE 1. Swiftly speaking--the boiler must make every pound of coal do its best, it should respond rapidly to climatic changes, it must be easily fueled, shaken, regulated, cleaned, free from repairs, rust, leaks water heat or gas and it must be easily set up in room for its use. (All good boiler makers send you “coal information.”) Economy in fuel and labor.