Domestic Lighting and Heating

Abstract

IN the issue of NATURE of December 19, p. 910, an account is given of a house, where heating, cooking, hot water, lighting and power are obtained solely from electric energy. The yearly bill is something like 43l. for a ten-roomed house, and, considering that a judicious selection of the several agents available for lighting and heating would perform the same office for less than half the cost, with only very little labour as an offset, but with considerably more comfort, it may be asked where the advantage of the “all-by-electricity” system lies. “There is nothing to do but to operate a tumbler switch.” When this has been said, apparently all has been said, for there is nothing tempting in the complicated and costly installation described in Prof. S. Parker Smith's paper, nor in the denial involved by the abolition of the open coal fire (with its appalling waste and its bright cheerfulness !) and of the direct open window ventilation, barred, evidently, by the small supply of heat which can be derived from an electric fire. Unfortunately, these two features, open coal fires and open windows, are essential features of British comfort and British health, and few would shirk the trouble of laying a coal fire with their own hands to spend a long evening by, if the alternative was the simple operation of a switch, and the resulting cheerless glow ! I sincerely sympathise with any one who would follow the “simply-a-switch” lure and have but an electric fire to heat in winter a 14 × 22 feet room with a nice spacious window at each end admitting surreptitious draughts in proportion to the amount of light they let in.