Attractive Oil – Heating Appliances Easy To Maintain

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30737, 29 April 1965, Page 13

Attractive Oil - Heating Appliances Easy To Maintain

Because of a reluctance in New Zealand to spend much money on home-heating, oil-fuelled space heating is a late starter in this country.

One manufacturer of space heaters says his products cost less than equipping a new house with a chimney.

The cost and installation of the most popular space heaters ranges from about £75 to about £llO. For less than £4OO you may install one of the more elaborate models, with ducts leading to every room.

Oil heating is gaining in popularity, mainly because the appliances are attractive and can be installed in old or modern homes without much trouble.

Under-floor installation means no space in a house occupied by heating apparatus, and the installed cost ranges from £l5O to £250.

There is no smell, as the heated air which comes from the equipment is never in contact with the flame.

Heating is immediate, may be controlled easily and does not vary once a setting is selected.

Maintenance is only required annually, and the operation of such a system is simple. Fuel is stored outside in a drum or may be underground if more convenient.

Like a solid-fuel spaceheater, an oil space-heater normally heats an entire home. It requires no stoking, no fire-lighting and there is no ash to be removed.

One of the refinements available on oil spaceheaters is the thermostat. Different temperatures may be maintained in various rooms by means of the optional “zone control” thermostat, which gives, say, 69 degrees in a lounge, 75 in a bathroom, and 55 to 60 in a bedroom. One disadvantage is that zone control is costly.

An automatic compensator is also available. This is also costly. It is used to increase temperature inside, as outside temperature falls —to compensate for heatloss from the house.

Heating may also be timed. The time switch cuts

the overnight temperature to, say, 40 degrees or off, and has the lounge at 65 degrees by the time breakfast is served.

In parts of New Zealand where there is some risk of overnight freezing, an “overriding thermostat” may be used. This starts a special heating system when the temperature falls below 32 degrees. In the ideal oil installation, the consumer never sees the oil. A tanker stops at the gate and connects a hose to an inlet pipe. The

oil is pumped into an underground tank at the gate which is connected by pipe with the space-heater. A warning: beneath-the-house tanks, although common, are illegal. Some makers of oil spaceheaters make themselves responsible for seeing that the oil reserve is never low, thus ensuring regular maintenance as well as delivery.

Oil heaters are easy to start. Most are lit by hand. They have three kinds of burner:

Most home heaters have a natural-draught vaporising burner, a pot burner with no moving parts and which is entirely silent.

Forced-draught vaporising burners have a natural draught plus an electric fan for slightly bigger heaters.

Atomising burners are those in which “mchanical atomsation” is achieved by the pump or compressor breakingoil into small particles.