History of District Heating in the United States

| Chronological List of District Heating Systems in the United States |

District Heating in Salt Lake City, Utah

The Salt Lake Power, Light & Heating Co. was incorporated in 1881 and in 1893 became part of the Salt Lake & Ogden Gas & Electric Light Co., which in turn became part of the Union Light & Power Co. in 1897. In 1899 Union Light was reorganized as Utah Light & Power Co., which was absorbed into the Utah Light & Railway Co. in 1904. UL&R became part of the Utah Light & Traction Co. when UL&T was organized in 1914. UL&T was itself controlled by Utah Power & Light, which had been incorporated in 1912.

The Salt Lake Power, Light & Heating Co. built a plant on the block south of Temple Square and was likely supplying heat to buildings on the same block.  A 1902 list of Central Heating Systems includes the Utah Light & Power Co.

Prominent heating engineer William Henry Schott helped to organize the Salt Lake Public Service Company in 1906 and the company built a plant on Third West and First South streets but it was never completed.  Schott had earlier been involved in developing hot water district heating systems in the midwest.

The Mormon church built a new heating plant on the block west of Temple Square in 1909 to supply the new Hotel Utah being built on the block east of Temple Square.  The new plant also served the buildings on Temple Square including the Temple and Tabernacle.  In 1916 Utah Power & Light bought this plant and another one that served the Newhouse & Boston Buildings. 

The Newhouse plant was closed in 1970 and the plant serving Temple Square was sold back to the church in 1996 as the company exited the steam heating business..


References
1889 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Salt Lake City
Plate 30:  Salt Lake Power, Light & Heating Co's Wks.

1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Salt Lake City, Volume 1
Plate 2:  Temple Square Heating Plant
Plate 6:  Utah Light & Power Co. Electric Plant

1902 The Municipal Year Book, edited by Moses Nelson Baker, April 1902
Pages xxiii-xxvii: Commercial Central Heating Stations.
Page xxv:  Salt Lake City, Utah; Utah Light & Power Co.

1907 Moody's Manual of Railroads and Corporation Securities
Page 1668:  Salt Lake Public Service Company, inc. September 1, 1906, in Utah, to supply, light, heat and power in Salt Lake City and vicinity.
A steam heating plant will be erected at Third West and First South Sts., Salt Lake City

1908 "Public Service Soon Completed," Salt Lake Telegram, April 11, 1908, Page 7.
W.H. Schott, chief engineer of the Salt Lake Public Service company and inventor of the Schott system of heating.

1908 Engineering Review 18:63 (July 1908)
In connection with the several buildings which are being erected by the Mormon Church, between North and South Temple and Main and State streets, at Salt Lake City, Utah, it is now planned to build a new heating plant, which will cost about $150,000 and which will be used to furnish heat for the various buildings of the Temple square and those in the same block. It is proposed to build a tunnel under Main street for the accommodation of the pipes. The location for the new buildings has not been selected, but work on the tunnel is already under way.

1908 "The Schott Systems of Central Station Heating," by J.C. Hornung, The Heating and Ventilating Magazine 5(11):19-23 (November 1908)
Steam heating system in Salt Lake City.

1911 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Salt Lake City, Volume 1
Plate 56: Temple Square including old heating plant.
Plate 77: Hotel Utah Power, Light & Heat Plant [Also serves the buildings on Temple Square through a tunnel]

1911 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Salt Lake City, Volume 2
Plate 123:  Public Service Co. Heating Plant (work suspended)
Plate 126:  Utah Light & Power Co's. Central Station

1911 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Salt Lake City, Volume 3
Plate 251:  Newhouse & Boston Bld'g Ht'g Plant.

1922 "Salt Lake City, Utah," The Heating and Ventilating Magazine 19:92,94 (December 1922)
A new building to contain two new boilers, and a 206-ft. smoke stack, are now under construction as additions to the steam heating plant of the Utah Power & Light Company. The new plant is located in the center of the block west of Temple Square. The steam heating department of the company is an active factor in the campaign for the elimination of smoke in Salt Lake City. The system at present supplies heat to 75 of the largest buildings in the city, serving the territory from Fourth South to North Temple and from State Street to West Temple. It is intended that the system will be expanded until a net work of lines covers the congested business district supplying steam heat to all of this section. Since its beginning in 1916, all work done on the steam heating plants and mains has been of a permanent character and designed to form part of the projected system.
At the present time the South Temple plant is overtaxed, and it is to permit this plant to adequately care for its present business that the new additions are being constructed. One boiler is under process of erection now, and the other will be built later.

1911-1949 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Salt Lake City, Volume 1
Plate 77:  Utah Power & Light Co. Heating Plant. [Built 1922]

1923 "Maximum Demand Study," by H.F. Ferguson, Utah Light & Power Company, Bulletin of the National District Heating Association 8(3):200 (April 25, 1923)
Here in Salt Lake City, where we have been operating a live steam heating plant for about seven years, we have been taking observations from time to time as to the relation between the maximum hourly demand established in our boiler room and the sum of the individual demands, shown by five minute and hourly readings of the customers' meters.

1929 "Salt Lake City's Fuel and Smoke Problem: A Review of the Current Situation," by Geo. A Orrok and W.H. Trask, Jr., Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers FSP51-48 51(1):375-379 (1930)
Page 378-379:  DISTRICT STEAM HEATING
Many communities noted for their freedom from the dust and smoke nuisance are served by the district steam-heating systems which have been increasing in numbers during the last few years. Freedom from smoke and dust means that every building in the community must take the steam service as well as the gas and electric service, consequently many of these steam-heating companies are run in conjunction with the gas and electric company. With the district steam system, the heating of the houses is automatically controlled, the householder being relieved of the firing and ash problem. The cost to the house-holder is usually from one-third to one-half higher than if he ran his own furnace, the extra cost in lieu of the firing and ash-removal costs. The steam is generated at high efficiency in a large station where the smoke and dust nuisance can be nearly eliminated. Distribution costs are necessarily high, particularly if the city is spread out, and the lengthening mains become more and more costly as the distance increases. Distances of three or four miles are not prohibitive, and many of the smaller industrial plants, hotels, laundries, etc., beside the householders find such a system very attractive. The four district heating plants now operating in Salt Lake City are all in the business district, have a capacity of about 6000 lip., and serve only a small portion of the city. This service could be much further developed, to the mutual advantage of the inhabitants of the city and the steam supply company.

1939 Utah Power & Light Company : history of origin and development 
Pages 376-379:  Steam Heating Department

1948 "Steam Heating Rates Boost Asked by UPLC," Deseret News, July 22, 1948, Page 16.

1964 "Supervisor at UP&L Plans Retirement," The Salt Lake Tribune, May 29, 1964, Page 42.
Harold B. Swaner has been associated with the firm since 1917, one year after UP&L purchased the South Temple steam plant from the Church of  Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  He was named superintendent of steam heat in 1929 and has been responsible since for operation and maintenance of both the South Temple unit and Fourth South and Exchange Place area producer of steam. The plants serve downtown buildings with steam heat.

1970 "UP&L Closes Heating Plant," Deseret News, October 20, 1970, Page 22.

1989 "UP&L Merger Related Rate Reduction," Utah Public Service Commission, April 19, 1989
Rate reduction for steam heating customers

1989 District Heating and Cooling feasibility study, Salt Lake City, Utah: Final report, September, 1989

1990 Power to Make Good Things Happen:  Past, Present Future; the History of Utah Power & Light Company, by John S. McCormick

1996 "LDS will buy steam-heating plant," The Salt Lake Tribune, May 3, 1996, Page 41.


© 2024 Morris A. Pierce