CHAPTER XI. TESTING OF ICE REFRIGERATORS. (Part 3)

would increase the initial cost of the ice box about $3.50, but it would pay for itself in about three months. If two inches of corkboard were added to the insulation in box No. 1, the weekly ice meltage to overcome the radiation would amount TESTING OF ICE REFRIGERATORS 417 to but 65 pounds, or 1,370 pounds for the summer. This would mean a saving of about one ton of ice during the summer and would reduce the ice bill $8.65. To get this increased efficiency would add approxi- mately $5.80 to the initial cost of refrigerator. Obviously, a good refrigerator will pay for itself in the ice it saves in three or four years. TABLE LXXX.— SHOWING HOW THE EFFICIENCY OF A REFKIGERATOK MAY BE INCREASED, THE COST OF OPERATION REDUCED AND THE SAVING TO THE CONSUMER BY ADDING MORE INSULATION. . 3 „ n^ rt u, 12 -a a, •« .W S nO . ^ o ^ ^ -o 3 i^ Si So ^ n^ ^ ^ ^d m c 1 2-%-in. boards, 2 sheets water- proof paper, 1-in. mineral wool 4.60 3,400 lbs. 158 lbs. $14.45 2 Insulation of box No. 1, plus 1-inch corkboard -2.64 1,950 90 8.30 $3.50 1,450 $6.15 3 Insulation of box No. 1, plus 2-inch corkboard 1.85 1,370 65 5.80 5.80 2,030 8.65 NOTE: Were the refrigerators in Rochester brought up to a state of efficiency they would save in lower ice bills to the consumer at least $350,000 yearly. Conclusions: Neither the cellar nor pantry in the home are suf- ficiently cold to keep perishable foods from spoiling during the warm months of the year; therefore, every home should have a good refrigerator. Only about half the homes in the city have refrigerators; the other half are compelled to depend upon the inadequate protection afforded by the cellar. The majority of domestic refrigerators are inefficient because they consume too much ice and do not maintain a temperature low enough to prevent food from spoiling. The chief explanation of their inefficiency is to be found in the lack of sufficient and proper insulation. There are a large number of shoddy refrigerators on the market which contain no other insulation than a sheet or two of paper. They are sold chiefly to working people who can ill afiford to use them, because they are both unsanitary and grossly uneconomical in the consumption of ice. 41 S HOUSEHOLD REFRIGERATION The waste from ice meltage because of improper insulation of refrigerators in Rochester homes (population of city, 230,000) amounts to 60,000 tons yearly, or about $350,000. At least $100,000 more is wasted yearly in the present competitive system of delivery. Unnecessary waste is now making refrigeration cost consumers from three to five times as much as it should. There are certain simple directions which will be of assistance in selecting a refrigerator. If they are observed, the purchaser can at least avoid being defrauded. One should insist upon seeing a section of the wall of the refrig- erator which he contemplates buying. Honest manufacturers are always willing to let customers know the character of their wares. Do not buy a box which does not bear the name and address of the maker, nor one sold only under the name of a retail dealer. If the manufacturer is ashamed to acknowledge his handiwork, you are justified in suspecting fraud. TABLE LXXXI.— SHOWING THICKNESS OF WALLS OF REFRIGERATORS. Well-to-do 5 American laboring 9 Jewish laboring 17 German-American laboring.... 4 Italian laboring 0 Totals 35 36 34 19 23 4 3 42 8 1 13 3 1 0 0 0 114 49 24 Do not buy a box which contains less than three inches of good insulation, not including the wooden cases or the metal or tile lining. Beware of impossible "vacuum," doubtful "dead air space," and no-good paper insulation. Money invested in insulation will be returned many times in the saving of ice bills. Added insulation means not only economy in ice consumption, but also lower temperature in the refrigerator and the less spoiling of food. A refrigerator is of little value which will not operate with rea- sonable care and ice consumption at 45° F. during the summer months. There is a big field for the manufacturer who will put on the mar- ket an efficient ice box which can be sold at a price within the means of people in moderate circumstances. TESTING OF ICE REFRIGERATORS 419 Not one cellar was found cold enough to prevent the rapid decom- position of milk and meat. Living rooms were found to be even worse, therefore refrigerators are really a necessity. Only forty-two refrigerators of 300 examined were found as cold as they should be, while 177 of them were above 50° P., at which temperature they are of little value. TABLE LXXXII.— SHOWING A NUMBER OF HOMES USING VARIOUS AMOUNTS OF ICE WEEKLY. Section • <n » XI U3 O.C X> o o tr, o o oo o ^^ tM cq n fO 3 O Well-to-do 0 3 24 79 28 15 149 American laboring 11 16 18 32 3 4 84 Jewish laboring _. 5 18 8 26 3 0 60 German-American laboring 3 5 10 19 0 0 37 Italian laboring 4 0 0 5 0 0 9 Totals 23 42 60 161 34 19 339 A good refrigerator should maintain an average inside tempera- ture of not higher than 45° F., because food spoils rapidly at 50° F. This means a temperature difference of from 20° to 30° during the summer. A box which will not average 20° difiference for the five warm months, with a reasonable consumption of ice, is no good. All of the better class of refrigerators use some efficient insulation. None of them use enough. The poorer makes use little or none, excepting a sheet or two of paper. Some manufacturers attempt to obtain cheap insulation by creating small air chambers of paper and wood, which they call "dead air space," a physical and practical impossibility in refrigerator construction. Such boxes are usually worthless. A properly constructed ice box, to be economically operated, should have a wall of efificient insulating material at least six inches thick. Such a box at the current prices of ice, will have a theoretical I'fficiency of about 80 per cent The 149 refrigerators whose wall thickness is less than 2% inches, even were they made of the best possible construction, could not have an efficiency above 40 per cent. The remaining seventy-eight refrigerators with walls averaging less than three inches, could not have an efficiency of above 50 per cent. As a matter of fact, with the shoddy and imperfect insulating materials used, most of the ice boxes in common use rate far below their theoretical efficiency. It is interesting to note that Italian working people use very little ice. It was observed that they avoid very largely the use of perishable foods requiring refrigeration in the home. Thus, condensed milk is used largely in place of fresh milk and preserved meat in place of fresh meat. Jewish people use much milk and therefore much ice. 420- HOUSEHOLD REFRIGERATION Unfortunately these people get the benefit of not much more, than 20 to 30 per cent of the ice they buy because of the defective ice boxes. There are about 55,000 families in Rochester. They use approxi- mately 100,000 tons of ice yearly in their homes. Beyond all ques- tion more than 60,000 tons of this ice is wasted, entailing a loss to these consumers of at least $350,000. TABLE LXXXIII— SHOWING NUMBER OF MONTHS ICE IS USED DURING YEAR BY HOMES IN VARIOUS SECTIONS OF ROCHESTER.