The ideal heating system is one that will give a uniform temperature throughout the house, if desired. Furnaces are more likely to produce this result than are stoves.

A stove seldom heats more than two rooms and often only one. A "drum," or radiator, for utilizing otherwise wasted heat, will remove the chili from an upstairs room but generally will not give warmth enough for a sitting-room. The care of several stoves is greater than that of one central plant.

Table X. - Comparison Between Stoves and Hot-air Furnace

Method of heating

Initial cost including installation

Coal used during one year

Number of rooms heated

Temperature

Two stoves

$90, and drums for upper rooms, $8

12 to 14 tons of more expensive coal

5

Uneven

Hot-air furnace

$100 to $150

8 to 12 tons

8 to 10

Fairly even

A hot-air system is the cheapest system to install but the most expensive in the amount of fuel used.

A steam system costs about twice as much as hot-air but it requires less fuel.

A hot-water system costs about three times as much as hot-air but requires less fuel than does either a hot-air or a steam system.