100 years ago today-- heating fuel choices

PRR

Happy new year!
January 1924, coal is getting "difficult", so coke or oil?
What caught my eye is the huge size of tank proposed "to get the cheapest rate". About 6 times bigger than the now-common residential tank. But my last house did have a tank like that (and we was paying a lot more than 7-10 cents/gal).

EBEBRATT-Ed

@PRR

Funny I was just looking through some old stuff.

I started at an oil co in 73". I think oil was around $.20/gallon but can't remember. It just so happens that my mother told me when I started working there that the same oil company had installed my grandmothers oil burner back in the 1930s and converted her boiler from coal.

Fast forward 13 years and the owner of the oil co retired and sold the company and I decided to move on.

We were cleaning out the shop and up on top of the offices we found probably 50 old record books where they kept records of every job they did.

I was tossing the books down to a coworker to throw them in a barrel, but something made me stop and take a look in the 4th or 5th book I picked up. Sure, enough the record of the install of the burner in my grandmother's house was in there from 1938.

1 oil burner
275 gallon tank
Indirect water heater
thermostat
pressure control

All installed including labor $300.00

SlamDunk

According to usinflationcalculator.com , that would be $6533 in today's dollars.
Your grandmother was doing well!

Just picking internet prices for these items, I'd say still pretty close.

RascalOrnery

A fair amount of people in Schuylkill county, PA still heat with anthracite coal. There are some businesses too that do so. BTU per BTU fuel oil would have to be <$1/gal to justify oil over coal from a strictly financial perspective. (Propane is a different story, and a good number are switching) Relative told me a local business that uses over 200 tons a year (I think they process meat/butcher)

A Los Angeles Times article said: "The electric automobile will quickly and easily take precedence over all other types" (of motor vehicles)...that was in 1901...

I was in an old church recently where the "choir bleachers" were shimmed up about a foot by a couple dozen volumes of Encylopedia Brittanica! 30 years ago (pre internet) that would have been as shocking as using a few macbook pro laptops today! It's amazing how perspectives shift and how marketing capitalizes on the negatives of one industry to catapult their own agenda (which sometimes may even be the right agenda)

Who know! We could be all boycotting Amazon in ten years and going back to flip phones, the whoopie cushion could take the Christmas industry by storm!

It's so neat to see how hard it is to predict the future, let alone human behavior and response!

ChrisJ

10 cents a gallon is the same as $1.80 today.

JUGHNE

In 1922, my village voted 177 to 48 to install it's first power plant.

$11,405 for the building and $6,041 for a 1 cylinder 38 KW engine and switchgear. That was a "Hothead" diesel that could be started with the "shotgun shell" explosive charge if needed.
It was still in the building in 1968 and used as a "peaker" to get thru the noon hour.

The plant ran only 18 hours a day.....why would you need electricity at night when you were in bed?

Rates ranged from 7 cents to 17 cents per KWH, but by 1925 rates went up to 10 to 18 cents/KWH, there was a minimum of $1.50 per month.....no small amount in the 1920-30's

In the 1920's a 10,000 gallon train load of fuel oil cost 2.75 cents per gallon.

Today my electric rate is 16 cents/KWH......think about what fuel oil costs today.
Adjusting for inflation, electric rates have gone down from 1920.
We get our power from the grid and thru various agencies that buy on a daily basis.
So the source is hydro, coal, and Nuclear.

We just are in the process of adding another diesel generator, 2.1 MW....a lot for us.
We will lease 1.8 MW of it to the power pool for their stand by use.
This puts our plant up to 3.35 MW for our load of about 2.0 MW.

In the 60's we were considered very backward to keep our power plant as all other small town scrapped theirs and connected to the grid. They now envy us when the grid might go down for 1 day to 1 week.
In a blackout we can be back on line in 30 minutes.

SlamDunk

ChrisJ said:

10 cents a gallon is the same as $1.80 today.

1.80 + taxes. I wonder if they paid taxes on fuel back then.

ChrisJ

SlamDunk said:

ChrisJ said:

10 cents a gallon is the same as $1.80 today.

1.80 + taxes. I wonder if they paid taxes on fuel back then.

I have no idea....
@Jamie Hall You're the closest to this I can ask.........I know it's probably a good 20-30 years too early, but... thoughts on taxes on fuel?

leonz

JUGHNE said:

In 1922, my village voted 177 to 48 to install it's first power plant.

$11,405 for the building and $6,041 for a 1 cylinder 38 KW engine and switchgear. That was a "Hothead" diesel that could be started with the "shotgun shell" explosive charge if needed.
It was still in the building in 1968 and used as a "peaker" to get thru the noon hour.

The plant ran only 18 hours a day.....why would you need electricity at night when you were in bed?

Rates ranged from 7 cents to 17 cents per KWH, but by 1925 rates went up to 10 to 18 cents/KWH, there was a minimum of $1.50 per month.....no small amount in the 1920-30's

In the 1920's a 10,000 gallon train load of fuel oil cost 2.75 cents per gallon.

Today my electric rate is 16 cents/KWH......think about what fuel oil costs today.
Adjusting for inflation, electric rates have gone down from 1920.
We get our power from the grid and thru various agencies that buy on a daily basis.
So the source is hydro, coal, and Nuclear.

We just are in the process of adding another diesel generator, 2.1 MW....a lot for us.
We will lease 1.8 MW of it to the power pool for their stand by use.
This puts our plant up to 3.35 MW for our load of about 2.0 MW.

In the 60's we were considered very backward to keep our power plant as all other small town scrapped theirs and connected to the grid. They now envy us when the grid might go down for 1 day to 1 week.
In a blackout we can be back on line in 30 minutes.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It all goes back to the Spindletop oil field discovery in 1901.

Fun fact, The Queen Elizbeth II ocean liner makes a 5 day crossing between England and the United States every 6 days.

When they are berthed in New York harbor they completely turn over and restock the ships laundry, fresh and frozen food stores, needed commissary supply's and empty the bilges and ta da refill the diesel fuel tanks. The amount of fuel transloaded/pumped from the local fuel dealer's barges is measured in TONS not gallons, TONS!!, and the same work happens in Liverpool 5 days later after the Queen Elizabeth II reaches Liverpool to ready it for the west bound Atlantic crossing to New York City.

The Sub Bituminous Stoker Coal mined in Powder River basin of Wyoming and Montana is less than $9.00 dollars a ton the last time I checked. The Lignite Coal mined in South Dakota was less than seven dollars a ton the last time I looked. Lignite Coal is also referred to as slack coal which was burned in fireplaces because of an anthracite coal shortage.

The burning of the lignite coal created the heavy smoke that killed many people in Britain during the Korean War period as Britain was dealing with a post war fuel shortage and a heavy Atlantic fog over the winter that settled over the entire area of Great Britain including Ireland Wales and Scotland for many months.

PRR

Local (town) electric plants had to be 60CPS AC close-enough for electric clocks to keep good time. (Quartz comes later.) When my dad was in high school he had the gofer job at the power plant. The Chief Engineer had a very fine pocket watch, which he checked every day against Railway Time. In the power house was a good AC wall-clock, which followed the errors of the electric plant. He'd check one against the other and trim the steam-engine governor so they agreed every day.

Here's 1919. Coal getting hard to get, they were burning light oil (kerosene) to stay warm.
This idea of stop-starting a fire on electrical contact was radical. As you appreciate if you ever managed a coal or even wood fire. Solid fuels take a long time to go cold and a long time (and puffing) to hot-up again.

EdTheHeaterMan

I like that this advertisement indicates that the Kerosene is more expensive that coal. They are making the case that there will be less work in keeping the home warm "practically no attention" means no coal shoveling, then there is no ash to clean out each week, and there is no smoke or soot.

Another disadvantage is the need to use electricity.

Times were simpler then.

PC7060

Found one of those 1800 gallon tanks buried on the property during a renovation.  Fortunately, it had already been abated and filled with sand. 

House was built in 1928 so date lines up nicely with the posted ad.  

ChrisJ

EdTheHeaterMan said:

I like that this advertisement indicates that the Kerosene is more expensive that coal. They are making the case that there will be less work in keeping the home warm "practically no attention" means no coal shoveling, then there is no ash to clean out each week, and there is no smoke or soot.

Another disadvantage is the need to use electricity.

Times were simpler then.

For being simpler a whole lot of basic things sure seemed a lot harder.
Like going poo at 2AM during a thunderstorm.

Or washing laundry, or for that matter your self.

Robert_25

RascalOrnery said:

A fair amount of people in Schuylkill county, PA still heat with anthracite coal. There are some businesses too that do so. BTU per BTU fuel oil would have to be

The coal shortage noted in the advertisement was due to a large strike of the UMW. Coal supplies became tight, and people looked for alternatives. I think this was also when the US Bureau of Mines started talking about energy conservation.

Related thread from a few years back: https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/186007/dead-men-tales-saving-coal-at-home

The cost of anthracite really went up this past spring/summer - I would not be surprised if it nudged some people in NEPA to finally switch to NG or LP.

retiredguy

In the early 1970's many schools and hospitals that did not have access to natural gas were looking for a cheaper fuel for their steam boilers than #2 fuel oil. The company I worked for in Pittsburgh, Pa. came up with the solution, bituminous coal. We converted many of these boilers to coal using either a ram or screw stoker. The screw stoker was used on smaller boilers while the ram stoker was used on larger units. Most of the conversions were done on horizontal fire tube boilers. To reduce the need for manual tube cleaning, soot blowers were added. Most of the time a brick arch was added to the firebox above the burning coal to enhance the burning of that coal. Other devices were added to help produce a clean burn so smoke from the stack or chimney was almost non-existent. Imagine, burning soft coal with little or no smoke.

EBEBRATT-Ed

@retiredguy

at one point (i think this was early 80s) HBSmith came out with a package fir there 4500 boilers with a Losch Stoker. It also had a Powerflame burner on 2 oilfor back up. The stoker was piped into the boiler returns as the took 1 return drum off and piped the stocker tnto all the section return drum tappings

do t kno if it ever worked out or not

retiredguy

@EBEBRATT_ed, I only saw a couple cast iron sectional boilers that were set up to fire soft coal probably because they had to be cleaned weekly and taking the front access covers off was a time consuming job. With a horizontal fire tube boiler you could employ "soot blowers" to keep the tubes clean, and only have to brush the tubes once a year during the summer hut down. .

PRR

EdTheHeaterMan said:

I like that this advertisement indicates that ....
Another disadvantage is the need to use electricity.

Not published as an advertisement. Yes, possible that a manufacturer or council "contributed" the pictures and words.

Electricity is a big thing if you don't have it. My last house heated for 70+ years before electricity came to the farm. Enormous floor furnace so hot air would rise without electric blower. Even in 2002, a house down the creek still never had electricity, even though now surrounded by 1980s ticky-tacky houses. Coal stove and kerosene lamps.

This house in the Maine woods, I think about non-electric heat. Of course I have a generator and it easily spins the blowers on a 40,000btu gas furnace. But generators go out. I have a gas fireplace which runs without juice. If I turned off the standing pilot then I need some batteries to spark it, but I usually do. (OTOH, if the propane runs out and the power is up I have about enough resistance heat to be fine, if soon broke.)

jumper

Can coke be called green? Made from biofuel?

leonz

Bituminous Metallurgical Coal with a high volatile content is used for making coking coal.

Anthracite Coal has the highest BTU per ton and burns cleanly with no smoke.

Anthracite coal can be used to make COKE as well

Anthracite Coal it has a heavier ash content if the portion of the anthracite
coal seam where it is mined has a lower carbon content due to it having a
much lower vegetation level where there was not a great deal of peat created
over 65 million years ago.


There are 4 types of coking coal (metallurgical coal) in use today.

Hard Coking Coal(HCC)

Medium Coking Coal(MCC)

Semi-Soft Coking Coal(SSCC)

Semi Soft Coking Coal For Injection (SSCCI)

Wikipedia has a nicely written page on making coking coal.

EdTheHeaterMan

I Actually prefer Coke over Pepsi.

leonz

I have been buying the original formula Coca-Cola made with Cane Sugar in
the green bottles and it reminds me of the Coca-Cola that we used to have as
there is no heavy corn syrup taste that ruins it.

PRR

leonz said:

I have been buying the original formula Coca-Cola made with Cane Sugar in the green bottles and it reminds me of the Coca-Cola that we used to have as there is no heavy corn syrup taste that ruins it.

(You probably know) If you have ANY Hispanics in your area, then there is Mexican Coke. Maybe at the bodega, but here we don't have even that many Hispanics, so the All-Around Supermarket has an 'ethnic foods' rack with your Goya beans, your big-bag rice, and real-sugar sodas.

leonz

Being a college town we have a very large immigrant population so
they have a large variety of foods they can buy.

PRR

"The coal strike, with resulting scarcity and high prices of fuel, has turned the attention of thousands of persons to the possibilities of fuel oil as a source of domestic heat. We do not refer to the Single-room kerosene stove. All of us are using this as an emergency measure; all of us understand full well that it is nothing more than this. But what about the conversion of our hot-air or steam or hot-water plants to the use of oil fuel? This is not an emergency measure; it is a permanent substitution of oil for coal in the domestic cellar. Already great quantities of fuel oil are used in industry, and its field of usefulness is pretty well defined and understood. The use of oil for fuel in the home is comparatively new, however, since it has only been within the past few years that burners which were safe and economical have been developed." Scientific American, Jan 1923, reprinted Jan 1973.

jumper

John O'Hara's Appointment in Samara described how coal strikers killed their jobs. Who was going to de-convert from oil back to coal? Of course coal delivery persons can deliver liquid fuel. When was home heating oil developed?

EBEBRATT-Ed

@jumper

When I started in the 70s I worked on some burners that were installed in the 20s. They had oil and oil burners before that mostly for commercial and industrial jobs. But the early 20s was the start of it for residential wide spread usage.

The coal to oil conversions went from the 20s up into the 60s but most were probably done in the 20s to early 50s. But that depends on location

PRR

...When was home heating oil developed?

Isn't that explained in the article I just posted?

"The use of oil for fuel in the home is comparatively new," -Jan 1923,

Jamie Hall

ChrisJ said:

SlamDunk said:

ChrisJ said:

10 cents a gallon is the same as $1.80 today.

1.80 + taxes. I wonder if they paid taxes on fuel back then.

I have no idea....
@Jamie Hall You're the closest to this I can ask.........I know it's probably a good 20-30 years too early, but... thoughts on taxes on fuel?

I honestly don't know when the first taxes were raised on fuels -- probably on road fuel first. I know that when I was a pump jockey and mechanic at a gas station on old Rt. 66 in the early 1960s there was a tax on the gas and diesel -- I think a few cents. I know we could (and did) sell gas at 19.9 cents per gallon and at least made expenses. Occasionally when the boss got mad at the station down the road we'd drop as low as 9.9, but I don't think we made any money on that.

On home heating oil -- the first predecessor for Cedric as installed in 1930, and was oil from the start. On the other hand, a house I lived in during the War (WW II that was) still had coal at that time, and a hand fired coal hot water (gravity I know now) system. My mother hated it (dad was otherwise engaged, shall we say) with a passion and I was still too young to be any help at all.

jumper

Not sure. I suspect that 20's industrial fuel oil differs from 50's modern home heating fuel. The latter has to be atomised to ignite.

PRR said:

...When was home heating oil developed?

Isn't that explained in the article I just posted?

"The use of oil for fuel in the home is comparatively new," -Jan 1923,

jumper

In the seventies I attended an evening course for gas conversions for commercial boilers. The prototype was unpowered bayonet. Challenge was burner "set up" routine with chemicals. But virtually all conversions I saw were powered burners. I don't know if gas utility maintained them. They seemed to be far more reliable than oil burners.

PC7060

@Jamie Hall  “Occasionally when the boss got mad at the station down the road we'd drop as low as 9.9, but I don't think we made any money on that.”

I remember gas station “wars” as well.  Never seemed to affect long term customer loyalty one way of the other. My parents keenly tracked prices between stations and would drive across our town (though a small one) to save a penny per gallon.

KarlW

This is funny to me, as my house, built in 1920, was installed with Natural Gas (or some similar piped-in ground gas). It never had oil or coal and always had a 24v thermostat.

I wonder why this isn't in the articles or advertisements.

PRR

> my house, built in 1920, was installed with Natural Gas

Oklahoma or South California? Both places and others, gas was byproduct of oil production, not convenient to transport, so sold locally or just burned off. I remember the gas burner in our 1920s bungalow in Culver City. Either it was local or forget it. The big long-distance pipelines came in the build-up to WWII.

1962, south Jersey, was close enough to the main gas pipelines that we had a gas burner. In Texas they don't even mention burning gas, it's all about the cooling. It does get cold in Texas but gas is cheap down there.

> I suspect that 20's industrial fuel oil differs from 50's modern home heating fuel. The latter has to be atomised to ignite.

The first uses of petroleum oil was as lamp-oil, replacement for whale oil. Light oils naturally distill-over easily. So not the heavy bunker oil; which could not be shipped or used without a lot of novel infrastructure. And the 1919 article above specifically says the motor unit "atomizes". I have seen wick-type burners but not whole-house output.

PRR

leonz

A small coal stoker firing a gravity hot water system saves a lot of money in fuel cost.

PRR

> A small coal stoker firing a gravity hot water system saves
But as Robert25 says above, the coal workers were on strike. You could not get coal at all in most places. Nevermind the logistics of converting millions of steam systems to hot water.

EdTheHeaterMan

The way I heard about the oil conversion in residential homes had to do with the returning GI's from WWII. My family has been in the Coal business since 1896. Delivering coal to residential customers by horse drawn wagons. Carrying 100# sacks of coal up hills to pour into the coal shoot, or 250# of coal in a wheelbarrow. Then in the 1930s grandpa purchased coal trucks with dump beds that had the ability to be jacked up in the air, and swiveled 180° to allow the shoot to dump directly into homes with basements that were above the street level. The modern age of coal delivery.

Since most homeowners heated with coal, no one actually thought of using oil. There were a few oil heated homes but coal was the norm. Then WWII sent the workers to Europe and Americans needed to keep those old boilers operating. Coal was the norm until the end of the war. But when the war was over, there were thousands of Sailors and Soldiers returning home with all that military pay in their pockets. New homes were being built with boilers and furnaces that used Gas and Oil. No more shoveling coal and cleaning out the ashes to stay warm. “The Touch of a Dial” is all you need to keep warm.

The family business saw the end of coal coming and the beginning of oil heat. They purchased fuel delivery trucks and started selling conversion burners for the existing homes that have coal heat. The big surge for oil heat was in the late 1940s and all through the 1950’s. The coal trucks were sold off in the late 1950s and the family business became strictly oil heat!

So even though the residential oil burner was available in the 1920’s and 30’s the real surge was after the War. Kind of like the “Baby Boom” was also the “Oil Boom”

Circa 1949

My Dad in the center.

Circa 1956

Circa 1956

Circa 1956

Circa 1956 Grand Opening of the new FP Young location at 801 W Olney Ave. Philadelphia Pa.

Larry Weingarten

Hi @EdTheHeaterMan , Great story, but that fleet of Volkswagen busses is a surprise. Good working space combined with fuel efficiency?? 🤔

Yours, Larry

EdTheHeaterMan

Larry Weingarten said:

Hi @EdTheHeaterMan , Great story, but that fleet of Volkswagen busses is a surprise. Good working space combined with fuel efficiency?? 🤔

Yours, Larry

They changed to Chevy Vans after a Jewish Customer left because we used "Nazi Trucks" My Uncle Frank was a WWII Vet. and that statement rubbed him the wrong way.

jumper

By the fifties heating fuel suppliers serviced those oil burners.
Made the business more complicated than delivering coal.
Pumps on oil delivery trucks also required maintenance.