GAS MEETS MANY NEEDS

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31349, 20 April 1967, Page 25

GAS MEETS MANY NEEDS

Today central heating is what most homeowners want, and the gas industry is rising to the challenge with gas space heating and new appliances with many important advantages.

Gas appliances have a very low maintenance rate, they give large amounts of heat as soon as they are switched on, and they provide excellent controllability and cleanliness.

Several years ago gas appliances appeared to be lagging behind their contemporaries, but the great activity of manufacturers in recent times has produced many excellent and well-de-signed modern appliances. Today’s gas heating can be controlled by thermostats, time clocks, or both, they ignite automatically, and their appearance bears little resemblance to the appliances of five years ago. Now, too. housewives can have gas stoves which are just as easy to clean as electric units, and clean economical gas water-heaters. Many cooks, too, favour gas because of its controlability and its speed. The modern gas stove has both thermostatic control and automatic timing.

Where heating is concerned, there is a wide range of gas appliances

available. These can be divided into two main classes: those ideal for heating one room, and giving up to 18,000 B.T.U.’s an hour, and those suitable for heating large areas or several rooms, and giving up to 100,000 B.T.U.’s an hour.

There is also a range of gas heaters suitable for fitting into an existing fireplace, and like so many gas appliances today, these are automatic-lighting. Another very efficient type of gas heater is the infrared ceiling or wall-mounted unit. In this type of heater the gas-air mixture is expelled through many small holes in the ceramic plaques which form the surface of

the burners. The mixture is ignited on the surface of the plaques, and reaches temperatures of up to 900 degrees Centigrade, transmitting infra-red rays over a wide area. These heaters are ideal for very large rooms such as factories, halls and canteens, and can be installed on a ceiling up to 60ft from the ground. Running costs are low, efficiency is high.

and no long warm-up period is needed. As the heaters are of the radiant type, there is no high cost of maintaining warm air temperatures above the working level, as is done by air-heating systems. These heaters are easy to install, and can quickly be disconnected and moved if necessary.