Discussion on “some notes on isolated plants” (Moses), New York, January 12, 1912. (see proceedings for January, 1912)

R. P. Bolton: I will draw attention to some of the features which the author has introduced as being of an informative nature and upon which you are invited to base future action and practise, and of which the diagrams presented purport to be indexes or guides. A casual observation shows that they omit consideration of a very important element of variation in output and demand on the part of these appliances. They seem to be based upon the sole consideration as to whether electricity be purchased or be manufactured, in the case of those on the left side of the page, and on the further consideration, in the case of the right-hand diagrams, of whether a certain amount of steam, more or less, would be required and provided by the apparent electrical output. The isolated plant, however, operates under summer conditions and under winter conditions, the demand for steam heat being climatic, intermittent, and irregular, while the demand for electric lighting is also intermittent and irregular — therefore how can conditions as laid down in the diagrams be used to determine the relative proportions or even the kind of apparatus to be installed in different plants? It is an open question whether or not it is desirable for steam-driven fans to be installed for indirect heating systems in connection with purchased electricity. The conditions might be such that it would be highly undesirable from an economic standpoint to make such a combination, and more particularly so if the process involved the employment of extra labor, which after all is the main element to be considered in connection with all the items in these diagrams, and one which does not appear in them at all.