Geysers are now contrived so that the one apparatus will serve several
taps, and circulators are fitted with concentric burners, so that when
the water is hot the ring is put out and only the small inner burner
used.
Thermostats are fixed to reduce automatically the consumption of gas
directly the water reaches a certain temperature.
A cut-out system is also applied to existing cylinders and tanks of
unnecessarily large size.
When using a gas circulator the gas should be turned out when hot water
is not required--a detail which many people forget.
For example, one servant heats the water for baths, washing up and
cleaning, then the gas is put out after lunch, and is not lighted again
until hot water is wanted at night. Another keeps the gas burning the
whole day.
Gas for Lighting.
When electricity is available, I should not choose gas as an
illuminant, but when it must be employed it is now so arranged and
shaded that the effect is perfect and the blacking of walls and ceiling
reduced to a minimum. It may surprise some of my readers to know that
gas can now be fitted so that it is switched on and off from a wall
switch in the same fashion as electricity. Incandescent burners make
for economy, and now _bijou_ burners are to be had suitable for small
rooms, offices, etc., which consume less than the large burners.
Allowing for gas at 3s. per 1000 feet, one large incandescent burner
costs one penny every eight hours, a medium burner one penny for every
twelve hours, and a _bijou_ one penny for every eighteen hours.
Gas Fires.
When choosing a gas fire see that there is a duplex burner, so that two
or three jets can be turned out, leaving the centre jets burning. When
the room is warm the smaller fire will suffice to keep it so. The best
modern fires are noiseless and ventilated beautifully, and, as I have
already said, they are really pleasing in appearance.
Nevertheless, I do not advise a gas fire, however good, as an economy
in a room which is used for hours at a time. The cost of an average
fire is said to be 1¼d. per hour, counting gas at 3s. per 1000 feet,
and it does not pay to burn 1¼d. worth of gas per hour for fourteen
or fifteen hours at a stretch. From the point of view of money-saving
it would be cheaper to burn coal.
On the other hand, supposing a gas fire is lighted in a sitting-room
in the morning, it can be turned out if the family are out in the
afternoon, and not relighted until shortly before they return, for
the advantage of gas and electric fires is that they are red-hot
practically at once, whereas a coal fire takes time to burn up and
become hot, and each time it is lighted it eats wood as well as coal.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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