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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