12. Consumes from 1¹⁄₂ to 2 kilowatt hours per day--if it is run from 6 to 8 hours per day. The purchaser of an ice-making refrigerator or a domestic refrigerating plant should be warned of the following: 1. A poor refrigerator will mean more electricity to keep up a sufficiently low temperature. 2. Don’t let a manufacturer tell you that a freezing refrigerant, such as sulphur dioxide, will escape and corrode the pipes. It has been tested out and in the best machines has neither escaped nor worn out its pipings. 3. Remember that opening and closing doors raises the temperature even in the magic iceless paradise, and therefore uses more electric power to keep the temperature down. 4. The best machines maintain the ideal and theoretical low temperature. 5. Expect service from the manufacturer. 6. It is best to have the gas air-cooled and not water-cooled because the introduction of water makes for the confraternity of gas and water--a troublesome mess. 7. Demand the temperature-controlling automatic device which starts the refrigerating when the temperature gets up around 39°, and cuts it off when the temperature is low enough to do its work. This saves electricity and wear and tear on the machine. Some iceless refrigerators make little cubes of ice by putting trays of your favorite drinking water into the brine tank compartments. In these the temperature ranges from 20° to 27°. Desserts, too, can be frozen firmly and surely when placed in these trays. The brine tank fits easily into the ice compartment of the well-made refrigerator. The brine tank, compressor, condensor and pump come in three sizes, corresponding to an efficiency of making two hundred, three hundred, four hundred pounds of ice per day. Actually these three typical sizes of refrigerators can only store ice to the amounts of one hundred and fifty, two hundred and three hundred pounds, a difference being allowed for melting. The condensor, compressor and motor of some types of ice machines do not take up any more space than that of 30″ × 16″ × 18″ high. This can be installed anywhere. When ordering an ice-maker for your home refrigerator, it is well to measure its interior, regardless of its compartments. Get the width, depth and height, and multiply them together. This gives the cubical contents and the manufacturer can then estimate as to the cost and size plant that you need. At five cents per kilowatt the cost per day of running an entire kitchen by electricity is but fifty cents. Compare this to the cost of motoring per day. CHAPTER XIII A BURNING QUESTION “Let me see your back-yard and I can tell you what sort of a housekeeper you are,” said a sleuth to a friend. But we would add “and your method of garbage disposal.” So we beg your attention for the tale of the incinerator, the modern and comforting Inferno, built to bring heaven (paradoxical as it may sound) into your home.