"Owain" wrote in message
...
"Andy Hall" wrote
| Sapient Fridge wrote:
| I'm about to have a new boiler in and the plumber is trying to persuade
| me to put in a condensing-combi boiler.
| These do heat the water on demand and save the space of the tanks.
| If you have a small house this can be an advantage.
| However there are some issues to check.
| - Make sure that the boiler is adequately sized to give the hot water
| flow required. ... Tank and cylinder systems don't have this issue since
| the water is heated over a longer period and stored normally at 60
| degrees.

Tank and cylinder systems also offer the option of a back-up immersion
heater at negligible extra cost for if the boiler ever breaks down. And if
there's a power cut there's at least a hope you have a cylinder of stored
warm water to tide you over.

If back up is really an issue then feed the output of the combi into a small
instantaneous electric heater. These are not expensive. They will supply
one tap or one shower. OK for backup until the combi is back up. see:
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/TTTW10I.html

Screwfix now do one.



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