Abstract
It is common knowledge that open coal fires radiate only a small fraction of the heat available from bituminous coal, most of the rest being carried up flues to the outside air. In many countries climatic conditions or the need for thrift enforce various means to avoid waste of fuel. Independent stoves are placed in living-rooms or heat is distributed throughout buildings by means of warm water or air propelled either mechanically or by gravitational action. To-day circumstances are compelling Britain increasingly to adopt similar methods. The growing use of closed stoves is a familiar example whereby 65 per cent of the heat of combustion can be distributed in a simple manner, at the cost of losing, wholly or partly, the heating by radiation from the glowing fuel. Another method, used in the so-called ‘convector’ fires, is an attempt to combine the merits of the open fire with recovery of heat from the products of combustion. These are led through a flue system whereby their content of heat is extracted and used for remote space heating. In some respects, this is analogous to a system of house warming common in the United States, where heat generated in the basement is allowed to percolate throughout by simple gravitation. The widespread construction of new houses offers advantages in such methods, advantages which are being taken.
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More Warmth with Less Fuel. Nature 160, 325 (1947). https://doi.org/10.1038/160325a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/160325a0