Firing: Stoves, Ranges, and Economical Management of Fuel

This post is chapter XIV of 1894 edition of "The Handbook of Household Management and Cookery" by W.B. Tegetmeier.  As I have another similar work, I'm guessing that that there were quite a few variations on this theme.  The book was compiled at the request of the London School Board for the education of girls.  This places it firmly in the 19th century, a time when big cities like London were developing the infrastructure of education, public health and energy.  It is not "dumbed down", I chose it because it is a discussion of energy and economics that might not take place today.

91. The fuel used for cooking our food and warming our dwellings is usually coal or coke; in some parts wood or peat is employed, and occasionally coal gas.

92. The heat produced during the burning of fuel is given out when the carbon of the fuel unites with the oxygen of the air, and carbonic acid gas is produced, as it is by the breathing of men and animals. This poisonous gas usually passes up the chimney with some unburned carbon which forms the smoke.

 When charcoal is burnt, the carbonic acid is produced without smoke, and therefore it is often used in stoves without chimneys, and the carbonic acid escaping into rooms is frequently the cause of fatal accidents.  All stoves without flues or chimneys to carry off the carbonic acid are dangerous, and many persons have been poisoned by their having been used.

93. The heat produced by the burning of any kind of fuel makes the air in and around the fire much lighter, and it rises rapidly over the fire, usually passing up the chimney. More than nine-tenths of the heat of a common grate passes up the chimney in this manner, and is wasted. If the grate is constructed of thick solid metal, this conducts away a large quantity of the heat so that it is impossible to keep in a very small fire in an iron range, whereas a mere handful of fuel can be kept alight in a grate lined with fire brick or fire-clay which does not cool the burning fuel in the same manner metal does. Part of the heat produced is thrown out by the fire, and passes into the room. In ordinary grates the amount of heat passing off in this manner is very much lessened by the thick bars which are frequently placed in the front of the grate.

94. Ordinary fire-grates are most extravagant modes of using fuel, and are not employed by the people of any other nation. Not only is a good deal of the heat carried away up the chimney, and by the conducting power of the iron, but the shape of the grate and the bars also prevents much being thrown out into the room.

95. An ordinary grate may, however, be made more economical. If it be lined with bricks, tiles, or fire-clay, and the open bars underneath be closed, either by fire-clay or a piece of tin plate, the air will have to enter in front where the fire will be brightest, and no heat will be thrown down into the ash pit.

96. Cooking ranges with an oven on one side are very useful in a small family. If well constructed they will bake bread, meat, and pies or puddings very perfectly.

Even when there is a low fire the oven can be used for stewing, and slow cooking can be done on the top much better than over a common fire.

A boiler by the side is not so important as an oven, Boilers are liable to get filled with the deposit or rock from the water; and if they are of cast iron, they are apt to crack. As an example of a good cheap open range, the following may be taken; it has a fire-clay back to prevent the heat passing away where it is not required, a good sized oven with the door to let down in front, and a boiler. Grates of this kind are now made by many manufacturers, and are sold at a low price.

97. Cooking stoves are much more convenient and economical in use than ranges. They are used by almost all persons in America, and are now very largely employed in this country. A very good pattern is shown in the engraving.   It has an open fire which can be used for broiling and toasting. This fire is quite under control and can be raised or lowered in a few minutes by opening or closing the doors  so as to cause a strong current of air to pass through  the burning fuel or over it as required.  The size shown will bake a joint as large as a leg of mutton or two tins of bread admirably.

The cooking vessels can be put down on the fire or placed on the hot iron top and shifted to receive as much heat as required.

The stove can also be used as a hot place for preserving or stewing.  The open fire is cheerful and the stove is a good heating stove as well as cooking stove.  An large boiler placed on top will furnish an unlimited supply of hot water.  placed in front of an open fire-place these stoves require about six feet of iron pipe to be placed up the chimney. Being perfectly movable they can be carried by the owner from one house to another and placed in front of any fire-place. They are sold by Smith and Welstood, Ludgate Circus.

98. Gas-stoves. Gas when employed as ordinary fuel is exceedingly expensive, being at least five or six times as dear as coal. When the gas is burned inside the oven in which meat is to be baked the vapour arising from the burnt gas renders the meat sodden and unpleasant, and quite different from the meat cooked in an ordinary oven or before the open fire.

Gas can however be used as an occasional source of heat with great economy as it is instantly lighted and put out ; there is no waste of fuel or loss of time.  The best small gas stoves are those that can be placed on a table and burn the gas mixed with air, when it produces a pale blue flame which does not smoke any vessel placed within it.  These stoves are particularly useful in heating a kettle of water in the summer time or when there are no fires in the house.

The text was produced by photographing the pages with my phone and using OneDrive's extract text feature.  Whilst I have read it through, any errors are mine not the original author's.

Simulation and Sustainability (15) - Think differently

In the second half of last year I wrote a short and simplistic simulation in Python designed to explore ways in which a typical household could increase its consumption of wind and solar energy by the including storage in it's energy economy.  Several scenarios where explored and written up as posts as part of this blog, this one is some thoughts on the project. The link at the bottom of the page points to the original posts.

The concept is simple, a household has, say, 10 kwh of electrical storage and by some yet-to-exist technology which gives it the ability to "buy" electricity from a variety of suppliers.  It makes use of  sustainable energy  when it is available and if there is a surplus stores it for use when the sun does not shine (i.e. at night) or when the wind does not blow.   It first checks to see if any solar energy is available on a local grid and if none is available it sees what wind farms can offer and finally when the storage is exhausted, falls back on conventionally generated supplies.

As with many simulations, there are a lot of assumptions and arbitrary rules, so the conclusions suggest a direction of travel rather than precise estimates of how such a system might behave.  Renewable currently account for roughly 15% of the electricity consumed in the UK, by incorporating storage into a home's energy system, an individual house might increase this to 50 - 80%.

Whilst wind and solar generation are critical technologies in a sustainable energy economy they are both weather dependent sources and require either storage or a  backup in the form of gas fuelled power stations to bridge the gap between intermittent supply and regular demand.  The pattern of investment that seems to be emerging is that offshore wind farms are incremental to conventional capacity and this raises the question: "Is it possible to displace some fossil/nuclear capacity by increasing the use of energy storage".

When I first started thinking about a simulation to explore this idea I had in mind the lead-acid battery packs used by fork lift trucks, however, since then products like Tesla's PowerWall have become available and these have the advantage of being packaged as consumer products.  As electric vehicles become more common, the profile of electrical energy storage will become more familiar.  It also raises the possibility of using the family car as part of the household energy supply.  For example, most cars do very little, often sitting around car parks at the end of the commute, if during that time, the car is charging itself on wind or solar generated electricity, it might return home with a surplus which can be used to light the home and cook the evening meal (I appreciate there might be some complexities in this scenario).

The current electricity supply model has evolved on two assumptions:

• That supply and demand can only be synchronized by adjusting the output of generators
• There is no limit to consumption

If these constraints are relaxed, alternatives forms development emerge.  Storage helps with the first item and the second is a challenge.  People do not buy energy, they purchase the benefits it provides.  One example of a technology which delivers this is LED lighting.  A decade ago our home was lit with incandescent bulbs and it consumed 20 kwh/day, now with LEDs we are down to 4 kwh/day and we can still see to read.

The potential to re-apply investment in energy infrastructure is illustrated by a hypothetical nuclear power station.  Say it costs  £20 billion and several years to build a 2,000 MW unit.  If the average home consumes 4,500 kwh/year, this imaginary project with a load factor of 90% can supply approximately 3.6 million homes.   This very simplistic calculation suggests that one power station represents an investment of £5.5k/household.  This is similar to the cost of a 10 kwh storage unit.

Sustainable energy sources are unlikely to fully replace conventional ones but there is scope to investigate some alternatives.

This link provides a description and pointers to related posts:

• Doris - A thought experiment in progress