September 16, 1922





RECORD   AND   GUIDE





359





REAL   ESTATE   SECTION





Cost and Efficiency of Fuel Oil in New York Buildings

First Pubhcation of Figures Covering Installation Charges and Savings Effected

in Labor, Ash Removal and Fuel





WITH the certainty of a shortage this winter of anthracite
which has always been the chief reliance for generating
steam in large apartment houses and office buildings for heat¬
ing purposes, the operation of elevators and manufacture of electricity
for lights, owners and managers of a large number of buildings in
Manhattan have become interested in the question of whether the
installation of oil burning plants may not solve some of the prob¬
lems of successful building management which have bothered them
during the last few years. The use of fuel oil has not made much
headway in New York City because of its nearness to the anthracite
fields and the seeming reluctance of some of the oil producers to de¬
velop the fuel oil business in this section. But in cities more remote
from the mines oil has come to be the main reliance for fuel pur¬
poses in large buildings, and used to a considerable degree in smaller
structures and even in private houses. As far back as 1906 when
the San Francisco earthquake and fire occurred there were 118 fuel
oil installations in large buildings in the burnt district, and at the
present time 70 per cent, of the fuel used on the Pacific Coast is oil.
In the last ten years many New England cities, less fortunately
situated than New York with relation to the source from which coal
comes, have turned to fuel oil because of the advantages it had in
the important matters of cost and eflficiency over anthracite and
bituminous. There are hundreds of oil-burning plants in operation
in Boston, including one providing heat, light and power for the 35
large buildings in the Harvard College group, and scores of plants
in Providence, including that at Brown University with its numer¬
ous buildings.

While it has been conceded by building managers here that oil
could be used successfully on the Pacific Coast and in New England,
where the price of anthracite averages several dollars per ton higher
than it does in this city, skepticism has prevailed as to the advantages
to be derived from the installation of oil burning plants in New
York. For a long time even the city_ officials were strongly opposed
to its use and it is only recently that regulations guarding the in¬
stallation and use of oil have been promulgated by the Board of
Standards and Appeals. But several occurrences in the last few
years set some building managers to thinking there might be
advantage in the use of fuel oil over anthracite and strikes and
storms have frequently made it an exceedingly difficult and
costly proposition to obtain steam coal and the problem of ash
removal, always vexatious and expensive, has also been com¬
plicated by the same causes.

Two years ago, before it was possible to obtain a permit for the
burning of oil in steam boilers, the installation of the first large fuel
oil burning plant was begun in an office building. A year later
another plant was installed in a large hotel. Since then a number
of buildings have changed over from the coal to oil, and a score of
plants are under way. Recognizing the great interest recently de¬
veloped in the question whether the substitution of oil for coal was
practical and also the relative cost of these fuels in actual operation
in New York buildings. The Record and GuroE has made an in¬
vestigation of the subject for the benefit of building managers and
owners who are so vitally interested. Fortunately the managers of
the buildings first installing fuel oil have kept accurate records of
the cost of installation, and comparative cost of operation burning
coal and oil. These figures are now available. Before giving them,
there is presented a statement made to The Record and Guide by
Robert Adamson, President of the Petroleum Heat and Power Com¬
pany, of 511 Fifth Avenue, setting forth the advantages claimed for
the use of oil over anthracite for steam purposes.    Mr. Adamson's





Company has installed a large number of plants on the Pacific Coast
and in New England, and has in operation or under construction
plants in a score of buildings in this city.

"The development of the system which has successfully invaded
the field in which formerly steam was almost exclusively generated
by anthracite," said Mr. Adamson, "is largely the result of the
vast supply of cheap Mexican fuel oil which has become available
at a time when the price of coal has advanced and the uncertainties
of obtaining a regular supply owing to strikes and transportation
difficulties have multiplied simultaneously. Oil burning and auto¬
matic regulation equipment has been developed. Engineers know
that one gallon of Mexican fuel oil weighing 8.10 pounds contains
as much heating energy as 12 pounds of coal, and requires about half
the space to store. It produces more intense heat and the operating
conditions are more elastic. Here are some of the facts about oil
compared with coal. One pound of fuel oil contains 18,500 B. T.
U.'s to 12,000 B. T. U.'s in a pound of average furnace coal; there
is a saving in storage .space of about 50 per cent.; oil is mechanically
fed into the boilers and leaves no ashes, doing away with stoking
and ash removal; oil burners are more efficient because combustion
is more perfect and temperature steadier; owing to automatic regu¬
lation of oil consumption to correspond with the load, there is great
saving in fuel, which saving is also added to because it is possible to
start and shut oflf fires without the loss occasioned by banking; by
the elimination of ashes and coal piles, the boiler rooms are free
from dust and soot and, finally, oil is handled with greater ease and
less noise, dust and dirt, and obstruction to sidewalks.

"By burning oil instead of coal it is possible to secure more per¬
fect combustion and to better regulate the consumption of fuel to
correspond to the fluctuations of the steam load. These are the
prime requirements of a well regulated boiler-room. They are ac¬
complished by the automatic delivery of oil into the furnace in the
exact quantity required to maintain the desired steam pressure or
water temperature and by the automatic regulation of the admission
of air in correct proportions to the amount of oil burned. It is
manifestly impossible to adjust manual stoking of coal with the
nicety of automatic regulation of oil and air.

"We have successfully installed oil burners in hot-water systems,
vapor systems and high and low pressure steam plants in which it
is required to maintain pressures varying from SO to 5,000 H. P.
Oil burners can be installed under boilers using coal by the removal
of the grate bars, refining furnace walls with fire brick, laying suit¬
able fire brick floor and providing proper dampers for admission of
air and burners for oil. The complete plant includes storage tank,
oil pumps, oil heaters, strainers and other fittings, and automatic
regulation.

"Insurance rates are the same as when coal is burned if the in¬
stallation is made in accordance with the regulations of the National
Board of Fire Underwriters, with which the municipal regulations
are in accord. There is no difficulty about labor because any in¬
telligent man can operate oil- burning boilers. The change from
coal to oil can be made without interruption of operation provided
there is more than one boiler and where one boiler can be spared
for installation.

"The first cost of fuel is lower than coal; heat loss up the stack
is less; fewer boilers are required; fire can be started or shut off
instantly; the supply of fuel oil is now assured because there are
enough tankers to take care of the demand and the local storage
plants are sufficiently large."

After obtaining from Mr. Adamson this outline of the theoretical