When did central heat become "normal"

ChrisJ

When did central heating become normal in North America? Our house appears to have had it installed sometime in the 1920s as my Kohler radiators are all the larger tube style hot water radiators setup for single pipe steam.



Before then it was heated by individual stoves.



I noticed in one of Dan's articles he mentioned a lot of people getting central heat in 1918?

JohnNY

Big Dan says....

....it had to do with the remission of the Spanish Influenza. People got used to sleeping with their windows open so as not breathe in each other's air and so they needed to permanent and all-inclusive method of home heating.

DanHolohan

Mostly the rich back then.

Much depended on where you lived and your social situation. My parents, growing up in NYC, had coal stoves in the kitchen of their apartments. They didn't get central steam heat until they were married in 1946.



One of the Pulitzer novels, The Late George Apley (which is wonderful) follows the life of a rich man who grew up in Boston. The whole book is told through letters, compiled by his boyhood friend. There's a part where they talk about the arrogant "help" and how they now expect to have heating in their rooms upstairs in the mansion. The suggestion was to get rid of them. Heating for the help? How absurd!

Rod

The Popularity of Central Heating

Hi Chris- In Maine the large houses built pre 1900 used fireplaces for heating. Almost every room had a fireplace. Smaller homes  had a wood/coal stove in the kitchen and a fireplace in the parlor (living room)  Larger houses had maids to keep the fires stoked and in the smaller homes the wife / older children had that job. Between 1890 and 1917 there were 8 economic depressions which I believe had a lot to do with the decline in the common use of household servants.  As the new central heating was economical to operate (minimal servants) and more efficient heat wise, it was very popular.  The influenza /fresh air craze definitely spurred things along, but my feeling was that lack of "economical" servants had a lot to do with it.   World War one propelled women in the work force which paid more than being household servant. You have to keep in mind there were a lot of things changing during this time period - women's suffrage etc.

- Rod



Edit:  I see Dan has replied along a similar vein while I was writing my post.. Thanks Dan for the book reference. I will have to read it!  I find it fascinating how much thought and social relations have changed in just 100 years so much so that it is hard for any one today to imagine what it was really like back then,

Jason_13

Central heat

According to them the first central heat was in Eastern State Penitentary. They had a steam system with just pipes, no radiation and was run by Quakers.

nicholas bonham-carter

How old is steam/hot-water heat?

Our house, built by my great grandfather had 1-pipe steam In 1885. Fired first by coal, then oil, and back to coal, then gas in 1952, when the Ideal boiler suffered a cracked section. The gas boiler was installed in a hurry in the winter,and had some piping problems which caused water level problems until with a new boiler in. 2009, I visited the wall and with the help of all here (especially Noel), made the tests which led me first to the subtle problem, and then to its solution.

I am sure steam heat was used, especially in commercial and public buildings well before that.--NBC

There must by now have been 5 generations of dead men working on these systems.

There are still abandoned gas pipes for lighting here and there. Another house in our neighborhood, still has working gas lights which they turn on during the Christmas season.

jumper

central heat not normal

In the fifties City of Toronto condemned homes without heat. I believe many were built in twentieth century. My friend remembered living in northern Ontario without heat. Colder than Maine I think. The decision to install central heat was in the thirties and my friend says his father agonized over the decision between steam & hot water.

The Steam Whisperer (Formerly Boilerpro)

In chicago, central heating appears much earlier....

Most of Chciago's housing stock was built by the 1930's, and all that I have been in have the original one pipe steam systems, even going back to about 1905.  I guess this is why Chicago is dominated by one pipe steam, it was installed much earlier than the two pipe systems in New York.   I wonder if this was driven by the fear of fires after the Chicago fire.  No frame structures were built in the city after the fire.



Quite Interesting.