Heating, cooking, and hot water supplies for the post-war house : a summary of the views of the Women's Advisory Committee on Solid Fuel.

Date:
1944
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Heating, cooking, and hot water supplies for the post-war house : a summary of the views of the Women's Advisory Committee on Solid Fuel. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    42 43 ad 45 46 The whole question of fuel stores for houses and flats requires thorough study, and we hope to make this the subject of a further report. For the time being it is sufficient to state that there is no excuse for perpetuating the present inadequate storage arrangements. It should be possible to provide good, covered stores for all dwellings. These should give easy access, both for delivery and for filling scuttles, and be compartmented to take at least 2 months’ supply of two kinds of fuel in towns, and 3 months’ in rural areas. Central stores are recommended for blocks of flats, and may possibly be introduced for groups of houses. We are at present studying the many problems involved in organising these methods of supply. Improved distribution services are essential. The present system of small deliveries is uneconomic from the point of view of the nation, as well as from that of the distributor and consumer. Where fuel is bought at the door, it is impossible to ensure that the right types are obtained for the appliances in use. More general encouragement to pay by instalments would help the poorer housewives to lay in good stocks. We fully recognise that the higher standards of convenience and efficiency that we call for in the use of fuels will require appliances that need adjustment and regula- tion. For example, continuously burning fires, which are so important from the point of view of reduction of labour, have to be set at very low burning rates at night in order to avoid waste. Similarly, the type of cooking appliance which will provide several services from a single fire can give the best results only if its use is properly understood. Children should be taught, even in elementary schools, the basic facts about our national coal resources and the necessity for conserving them.* Domestic science teachers should study and seek to understand the functions of the improved appliances; and schoolchildren, both boys and girls, should be taught how to use them. For the adults, who have not had previous experience of the use of such appliances, it will be necessary to provide demonstrators in the same way as has been done in the past in connection with gas and electricity. All these are matters which will require attention, both by the education authorities and by the solid-fuel interests. In the interest of brevity we have refrained from setting out in detail all the reasons which have led us to the recommendations made in this Report. Some of these are given in the Appendices, together with information which we regard as important from the point of view of assessing probable future trends in the development of domestic appliances and fuels. * See Appendix XII.
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