sf > wrote:
> On Thu, 14 Mar 2013 23:01:36 -0400, Ed Pawlowski > wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:49:09 -0700, sf > wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I think yours is like mine - central heating and hot water - a combi
>>>>> boiler?
>>>>
>>>> Yes it is. Is that not usual in US?
>>>>
>>> I've heard of a central furnace combined with an air-conditioner, but
>>> never one that serves as a water heater too.
>>
>> Right.
>> Furnaces heat air, boilers heat water. The terms are often used
>> incorrectly.
>
> YES! I know old public buildings and some super old apartment
> buildings (and those converted to condos) still operate with a boiler
> system - but come on... single family HOUSES? The only "modern"
> heating water source I know about is fed by the water heater, not a
> boiler (mid-century modern Eichler houses and modern bathrooms with a
> floor heating system in the floor). Define the parameters if it's not
> a single family house, which is what I think most of the people here
> were talking about in generalized terms. I don't know enough about a
> whole building boiler systems to know if hot water from a faucet comes
> from the same place that provides heat to the buildings or not. What
> I do know is that boiler systems are not commonly used in single
> family housing here... like Aga stoves, they are out of the ordinary.
>>
>> I've never seen a furnace with domestic hot water, but boilers that
>> both heat the house and heat the domestic water are very common.
>
> Thanks! Maybe that's the case in old buildings public building or old
> multi-story buildings with multiple apartments (or condo converts).
> My house was built in the '20s and it has never had a boiler system.
> It started off with a coal furnace. My grandparents centennial
> farmhouse in rural Michigan (built in the early 1800s) didn't have a
> boiler system either - it was another coal furnace and they heated
> water on top of their wood burning stove.
>
>> Probably 90% of oil boiler are made that way, at leas until a dozen
>> years ago when better systems were introduced.
>
> No idea what that would be.


I rented out a house in mass. had steam. You only need one pipe to the
radiator. You don't need pumps. Requires a stronger tank. I'm guessing it's
old style. That was 1969. Today that same house probably would cost
hundreds of dollars per month, at today's oil price.

I'm well familiar with coal heat. Coal stoves too. They even used coal in
the fireplaces, often in each room.

Greg