Abstract
IN a paper read by Mr. A. H. Barker to the Institution of Electrical Engineers on December 1, an explanation was given of the conditions under which electrical power can be used competitively for the heating of buildings. It is well known that, reckoned on the heat unit basis alone, electricity is the most expensive of all the sources of heat in common use, and that comparatively, gas is at present not very far behind it. Since the heat in a gas company's therm equals 294 electric units, it follows that if gas cost 6d. per therm and electricity 0.5d. per unit, the cost of the crude heat per therm delivered by the gas company would be 6d. and by the electric company 14.7d. In a few years' time we hope that more companies will be supplying at these cheap rates. If the thermal electric storage were employed the price of the electric heat would be reduced by about forty per cent. With oil at 80s. a ton and coke at 40s. a ton, the costs would be 2.25d. and 1.64d a therm respectively. Looking merely at the costs of the ‘crude’ heat, the solid fuels are much cheaper.
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Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels as Heating Agents. Nature 131, 32 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/131032a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/131032a0