GAS V. ELECTRICITY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1019, 7 January 1911, Page 3

GAS V. ELECTRICITY.

« A REPLY TO THE CITY COUNCIL MR. W. FERGUSON ANALYSES . HOSTILE STATEMENTS. [To tho Editor.] '

Sir,—ln your issue of December 23 you published a joint interview with Councillor Fitzgerald and an'officer , of tho corporation electrical staff (Jlr. Lauclilan), which purported to traverse my letter to tho Hospital Board. As the holidays are now over, I shall bo glad if you can spare space to enable mo to reply to the contentious set forth therein.

I am stated to have admitted in.my letter to the board tho inefficiency of gas-heating apparatus. This is scarcely correct. I find that tho secretary of the company, in a letter to Mr. Kirk, wrote:— i

"Re heating-water appliances.— I understand you aro of opinion, the vessels now in use for heating water are somewhat wasteful. Wo can only confirm your opinion in this matter. Some alterations to the apparatus now in use would lead to considerable economy, and to this ond Mr. Norwood would bo glad to meet you at tho hospital at any time to discuss with you your own ideas in the matter, and make any further suggestions which will help you in attaining your object-.''

You will notice that there is not one word in the above quotation relating to gas-heating apparatus. ■ The word "gas" has been read in so as to give a false impression. I understand that thove are. many, steam-heated apparatus 111 use which are not economical owing to tho long lengths of steam pipes and the losses by condensation in connection therewith. If tho trustees desire, tho services of Mr. Norwood are still at their disposal to show thorn how economies can bo elfeoted by tho substitution of gas for steam heat. If, 011 inspection, any more economical method of applying gas for heating than that 11017 in use at'tho-liospital ca'll bo suggested, the company will be. only too pleased by its officers to assist in obtaining-such economy. . The next statement is that, in commenting 011 the number of British thermal units available from electrical current and from coal gas, I had ignored tho relative efficiency of tho various apparatus for heating purposes; On tho contrary, I clearly stated that an electrical unit is theoretically equivalent to 3400 British thermal units; whilst r,S i mgto ". . sas £' ves > ln practice, 040,000 British, thermal units' per 1000 cubic feet. Your interviewers' allege that gas apparatus has tho very low efficiency of o to 10 per cent., whilst 90 to 95 per cent, is claimed from electrical appliances. Do they . not know that tho_ 540,000 British thermal units aio. obtained from a practical test in a piece of gas apparatus—a calorimeter? ihc-so results aro obtained in Weekly, and sometimes daily, practical tests in. tho gasworks laboratory, and therefore 111 that special gas apparatus there is not any allowaneo to bo mado for loss of efficiency, as tho result given is tlio uet practical, and not the theoretical, figure. Tests mado in" practical everyday "'orlc with tho. economical forms of tlio bath-water heaters mado and sold by the company- show results as good as those claimed in tho calorimeter experiments. I do iiot claim that. tho calorific cffect to bp obtained from a domestic boiling ring and common kettle is nearly as great as above quoted, but I do emphatically state that tho assertion that tlio efficiency -of ordinary gas-heating appliances is as low as 5 to 10 per cent, is a statement not ill accordance • with tho facts. I shall bo pleased to liavo' conducted practical tests for tho. benefit of Messrs. I'lt-Zgorald and Lancblan, which, if t-hey bona fide believe in a 5 to 10 per cent, efficiency, will astonish them, and this with an ordinary boilmg rmg and kettlo costing only a few shillings. I anticipate that a test conducted under domestic conditions would give for a common boiling, ring some oO per cent, of the efficiency obtained 111 tho bath geyser or. in .the calorimeter, and with a tubular kettle some 4o per cent. Ino public, by the widespread use of gas for heating and cooking purposes, lias shown in a practical manner that it does not believe that- 000 to 950 feet out of every 1000 feet of gas that aro bought are wasted. It will take more than the assertion of the interviewed to change the opinion of tho gas consumer. If electrical heating plant has the "ox--eoptionally high efficiency" of from 90 to 9o per cent., as quoted to tho reporter, how is it that these appliances have not come into use, not in Wellington alone, but all over tho world, wherever electric power stations exist? is not tho answer ..throe-fold—that the high efficiency claimed is imaginary and notavailablounder practical conditions; that, the cost of olectrical-heatino- appliances having a high efficiency is prohibitive; that the cost of heat by tho electric current is too great in competition with direct heating by coal coke, gas, oil, and other forms of fuel? Mr. Lauchlau quoted an opinion given by Mr. Trottei' as to tlio competing costs of gas'and electricity. 'Any expression of opinion by Mr. Trotter, a man of great scientific . attainments, must be carefully considered; but why arc not tho conditions of comparison given to us? AVero they for lighting* w-j.l ] lea ting, or for both combinetf? H ithout the disclosure of tho circumstances on which the opinion was based the statement is of small value. In passing, I draw the attention of Mr. Lauchlan to the condemnation made by Mr. Trotter, at a meeting of tho Illuminating Engineering Society held in London in January last, of n'nscrcened electric filament lamps. At that meeting, Mr. Trotter 'pointed out the bad effect 011 tho eyesight of unshaded' electric lamps. .- ■ • Experience shows that gas lighting -in one or other, of the modern forms is rapidly replacing electric lighting for public purposes, as at Berlin, where £350,000 aro being spent at the rate of £50,000 a year to , entirely replace electric street lighting by gas; in the cities of London and Westminster, for street purposes, and at Whitehaven for harbour works.

Hoiv is it that tho Local Government Board has declined of lato to sanction the borrowing by local bodies (for instance, of Hastings, Finchloy, Lowestoft) of money to extend electric street lighting, 011 tho ground that gas lighting is tho most economical and "efficient ?

I note from tho interview thati it ■is proposed not to supply tho Hospital 011 a flat rate of 3d. per unit, but to supply energy for heating purposes at lid. If so. will it not bo necessary to largely duplicato the wiring of the buildings, and has tho cost of this additional installation- been included in tho revised estimate of £000 for installation, or is the suggestion to charge a low rate for heating an afterthought and a further bid for tho business at all costs? There is not any allusion to two rates in the portion of Mr. Richardson's report that lias been published.

The next statement mado bv the interviewed is amusing. The report made by the Lighting Committee, that the committeo was justified.in stating that two-thirds of tlm gas consumed liy the. board was for heating and that the expenditure under that head was not less than £300 a year, has been twisted to a statement as a fact £600 a year were spent for gas in heating,/ followed bj- a wonderful but-absurd deduc-

tioii as to the? quantity of water that could bo boiled each day for that sum. Apparently the gentleman who ■ made that statement was ignorant of or wilfully suppressed in his calculation any consideration for any latent heat imparted to tho boiling water, and dealt.only with tho sensible heat, as shown on the .thermometer, and lie did not- allow any deduction on the calorimeter heat value of the gas. ' Even assuming that £500 per annum worth of gas was used for heating at an efficiency of 30 par cent., will Afr. Lauchlan deny that on the efficiency of 00 per cent, that he claims for electrical heaters it would have cost £720 to hayo provided the same number of heat units at lid. per unit, or £1440 at 3d.? In a paper, entitled "Domestic Electricity Supply as Affeet-ed by Tariffs," read by Mr. AY; It. Cooper at a meeting of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, in speaking of the domestic heating of water he says:— "But, unfortunately, tho amount of heat required is largo. Thus 125 gallons raised through 80 degrees Fahr. require 100,000 B.Tli. "U., and, neglecting loss from radiation, this is equal to 29 kw.—hours. Even at the low price of id. per unit, this comes to Is. 2}d. per day, which is quite prohibitive, considering that tho complete cooking by coal in this particular case, including the heating of water, requires 1 ton per month, and thus costs 9id. per day, with coal at 235. fid. per ton. Thcro is ; a further difficulty in heating water on a largo scale, namely, tho heavy current that is necessary. 'As an- example, it may bo mentioned . that if 3 kw. aro dissipated in 20 gallons of water, an hour or more will be 'required to raise the temperature through 50 degrees Fahr. This result does not compare favourably with heating by gas. If moro rapid heating is desired, the load becomes still greater, and trouble would bp experienced' with tho services and wiring if so much energy were required for such a subsidiary operation." It therefore seems acknowledged by some electrical engineers that electricity cannot- compete with gas for heating water.

Then there was introduced by the interviewed a digression to something relating to the lighting of churches, giving on the authority of Mr. Ballinger a statement| that a singlo gas-lit church was more costly than several electrical-, ly-lit churches. lam much obliged for the hint that the lighting in ono of the gas-lit churches is. alleged to bo oldfashioned, and I will try'to move the parish authorities to let the company reduce their gas account by the introduction of modern methods of gas lighting-

Then-follows a statement that many Wellington medical men-have been consulted, and aro unanimously in favotir of • electricity. Doctors differ, however. Quito recently tho Society of Medical Officers of Health discarded electric lighting in its meeting rooms, exhibition robins, and offices at. Upper Montague Street, Kussell Square, London, ; and is 'employing gas for both lighting and, heating. Tho long courso of experiments carried out, under the supervision of Dr. S. Itideal, by tho Royal Sanitary Institute, and published by that body, proved the superiority from a health point of view of gas over electric' lighting.

It is claimed that, by agreeing to instal gas engines to generate electric current for lighting, .1 have admitted the superiority of clcctricity as an illuminant. On- the contrary, my proposal is that gas should-bo used for lighting, but if the trustees, for any reason,' desire a more.expensive, and not so satisfactory a form of light, my company is prepared to provide it by a gasdriyen plant, at a rate that will satisfactorily competo' with current to ho obtained from the city mains, if that current -is to be, paid for at commercial and not "cut-tliroat" rates.

Mr. Lauchlan impugns my statement as to what is being dono' in -this city 'by gas-driven electric plants and estimates that if allowances be made-for attendance, repairs, depreciation, etc., tile prico per Wiit. Would bo 50 per ccnt greater than the price at which tho council is prepared to supply current to tho hospital. My answer is that I havo before mo a letter from the; proprietor of- tho hotel in question stating that in the first twelve months after installation, whilst allowing for all costs of attendance and working, he had saved £225 on his lighting bill on ii capital oxpendituro of £475. This is' a hard fact, not an estimate. The example of a business proposition that enabled the capital to bo written, offin a little over two years appears to bo worthy of tho attention of the Hospital Trustees, notwithstanding the estimates' of tho city lighting inspector. ■ / I regret that I. do not know anything about the Westminster laboratory or the report' that is so expensive that the City Council has only a copy of tho main results, but I do know that tho Westminster corporation has recently swept away all electric lighting where its contracts permitted it to do so, and has substituted gas therefor. It is, however, not necessary to go. to Westminster for tests. Tho Gas Company constantly tests the mantles sold to the public, and I liavo before me numerous tests taken within the last few months showing that the common upright Wclsbach mantle rives,from IS to 21 candle power per cubic foot after 200 hours' use, in place of tho Westminster 11} candlo power; but surely Mr. Lauchlan must know that tho company's proposals are to substitute in tho hospital inverted burners for which the 25 caijdlo power per cubic foot claimed is a low figure. In the "Illuminating Engineer" for Juno 1908 is published an account of tho lighting by gas of tho Scottish National Exhibition at Edinburgh and of tests made. Six tests on Vcsta-Graetzin inverted mantles .at low pressure gave an avorago of 33 2-3 candles per cubic foot; five tests oil tho . Nero-Graetzin inverted mantles at low pressure gave 39.7 average candle power; the Stanley low-pressure inverted lamp gave 36.2 candlo power per mantle per cubic foot, It is therefore clear that the claim of 25 candles was. a very moderate one, and the comparison published. by Mr. Lauchlan as to comparative cost of electric. Osram lamps and gas lights fails. Mr. Lauchlan has, in comparing. Osram lamps at 3d.-per unit, chosen gas at ss. 5d., though he must well know that tho prico charged to the hospital is only 4s. 7d. Taking only 25 candlo power, per cubic foot and the •, current hospital price for gas, each 38 candlo lamp would cost for gas .0.054 d., as compared with tho figure given by Mr. Lauchlan of 0.135 d. for a 38 candlo. Osram lamp, or, in other words, light for light, gas at 4s'. 7d. is only some 60 per l cent of tho cost of Osram lamps at 3d. per unit. This letter has bccomo unduly long so I do not propose at present to enter upon the ; question, which I havo not personally raised; as to'whether the corporation can commercially afford to supply energy during tho busy hours, or at any other time, at tho' special rates quoted to tile Hospital Trustees, beyond to point out that the greater portion of tho light used is between dusk and ten o'clock, and that so far as' I know tliero is not anything to warrant the assumption that there is anything unusual in .the nature of the demand there. As largo ratepayers tho gas company is materially concorned in the good' management of tho olectric lighting and power works, and it is trusted 'that tho calculations ajid statements on which tho councillors depend are not- of tho charactcr of those put forward by tho. gentlemen. interviewed, and which have been disproved ill this letter, —I am, etc.,

WILLIAM FERGUSON, Managing Director, Wellington Gas • Co., Ltd. ;