The Home Fires 4
When the snow lies round about, deep and crisp and even, it may be of some comfort to the householder to know that it has been proved scientifically that the warmest houses are those which are well insulated and centrally heated. The Building Research Station at Abbots Langley has been investigating the relative value of various types of domestic heating in a number of houses, testing them from the standpoints of economy, comfort and efficiency. In some of the houses the living rooms were heated by an open fire and the kitchen by the warmth from the stoves and heaters, while the rest of the zooms remained unheated. In others, the whole house was heated by 'convected warm air, and in yet others the heating was central. From time to time an investigator entered the empty rooms, took their temperature and retired. Now the experiment is being repeated on a more human scale ; the houses have been occupied, and their tem- peratures retaken in their inhabited state. There is a natural tendency to mock at experiments of this sort, which, after much thought, produce somewhat platitudinous results, but that the Englishman needs to learn a lot about heating his home is proved by the dank chill which, even before the days of power cuts, too often eddied through our rooms. New ways of central heating on a wide and economical scale have been studied at different times but seldom put into practice. Abbots Langley may produce suggestions for keeping all the people warm all the time, and at a moderate cost, and in this hope its future experiments will be watched with warm interest.
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