Space Heating Using Oil

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30737, 29 April 1965, Page 12

Space Heating Using Oil

Space heating by oil fuel may be supplied either by portable appliances burning kerosene and having no flue, or by fixed appliances burning range or light diesel oil and incorporating a flue.

Portable kerosene heaters without flues are now much less incovenient than formerly, because their proportion of carbon monoxide and other noxious products of combustion is now extremely low. Care must be taken to keep the burner and wick clean and the flame clear, otherwise the proportion of these obnox-

ious gases may increase to a level which could be harmful. Kerosene heaters release carbon dioxide and moisture into the atmosphere of a room, and this is not very desirable. For each pint of kerosene burned, about a pint of water is discharged into the air as water vapour, thus increasing considerably the high relative humidity which is a common feature of air in New Zealand homes.

Flueless kerosene heating in occupied rooms should be restricted to emergency use only. Because almost all the heat contained in the oil burned finds its way into the room, the efficiency of such flueless

heaters is very high. Nevertheless the running costs are not as low as those of slowcombustion stoves.

Space heaters which bum range or light diesel oil requirt a flue to convey the products of the combustion. The oil is burned from a jet or burner, which must be maintained in a clean and efficient condition.

If this is not done, flooding of oil may occur, with overheating which could lead to fire.

Most units of this kind are large and are suitable for completely heating a small house, especially if installed at a centra] point on the ground floor.