Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 May 1901 — Hot Water Heating Plants. [ARTICLE]

Hot Water Heating Plants.

A Kankakee company is asking the town of Knox for a franchise for putting in a hot water heating plant in that city. Thia system of heating is in operation at Laporte aud-other cities and is said to give the very best of satisfaction, while the cost is much less than the ordinary individual system with fuel. We should like to see this system investigated by some of our people with a view to getting a plant established here. T,he fuel item is a mighty weighty one to most Rensselaer people and one that is becoming more so each year. It would seem that a plant of this kind might be operated here by the city, in connection with the light and water plant, and furnish heat at a. much less cost than where a plant was established solely for heating purposes, as the fuel used for the former would in a large measure furnish heat for the latter purpose. Regarding the operation of the Laporte system we quote from the iStarke County Democrat: “While here Monday Dr. Scobey and Mayor Darrow of Laporte met in the Democrat office and in the presence, of others held a conversation concerning the hot water heating system. That proposed to be installed by the Kankakee company is an improvement on the one that has been in use at Laporte for several years. Asked concerning the practical operation of the system there, Mayor Darrow described jit as ‘splendid.’ He stated that his house of ten rooms is heated by the hot water system, and that for the heat whenever wanted and hot water for washing, cooking, bathroom, etc., all the year he pays $65. They have no trouble with the system at all, and Mayor Darrow praised it highly. He says they heat many houses three-quarters of a mile from the plant and expresses the utmost confidence in their ability to heat them much farther away, and to give a uniform heat at all times. Twenty or more public buildings and something more than one hundred residences are heated by the plant at Laporte, and it will be an easy matter for Knox people to learn full particulars concerning how the plan works by going or sending a committee to Laporte to investigate.”