§ Sir L. Lyleasked the Minister of Fuel and Power whether he can give any estimate of the waste of fuel caused by domestic and industrial water-heating plant being affected by hard water.
Major Lloyd GeorgeNo, Sir, it is impossible to give any such estimate, but the indications are that the waste of fuel in water-heating plant caused by using hard water is not large. In small domestic hot-water heaters some waste of fuel may take place in hard-water districts, but the evidence is by no means conclusive. In modern central-heating installations the same water circulates continuously and therefore scale does not form. Methods are available, and are widely used, for treating hard water to be used in industrial boiler-plants in such a way that scale and deposits are greatly reduced. This subject is fully discussed, in its relation to fuel, in the Handbook on "The Efficient Use of Fuel," recently published for my Ministry.