On Sat, 10 Sep 2005 10:18:33 +0100, Dave Fawthrop wrote:

There is a disagreement in another thread as to the adequacy of hot water
supplies from combi boilers.

There must be lots of people here with them, so will these people please
answer the question
"Are you satisfied with hot water from a combi boiler, without extra
storage".

I will start, because I look after a combi boiler in a semi commercial
kitchen at the Curry Project. We are very satisfied with the Hot water
there, especially because the hot water is food quality, because it is not
stored. We can fill the urn up with water from the hot tap. I have had
this confirmed by the local Environmental Health Officer.

Earlier today I tried to find a post a did a few year ago both relevant to
this topic.

1) Contained a list with a couple of dozen criteria which might
need to be considered when choosing a heating system. Needless to say the
matter of combi v. stored was addressed therein.

There is no "one size fits all". Why some people should find this such an
unattractive idea I can only make wild speculations.

The other post I found...

To parody Fowler on the subject of split infinitives:

The combi questioner can be divided in several groups.

Firstly, those who neither know nor care.
These are the happiest of all especially if someone else pays the bills.

Secondly, those who don't know and do care.
They post to uk.d-i-y.

Thirdly, those who know and always approve.
We all know who they are.

Fourthly those who know and always condemn.
To those of you who are in this group I beg you to read on. I suspect
that this group is larger than it might otherwise be on account of two
factors. Firstly there are a proportion of professional installers who for
their own reasons prefer to always fit a combi regardless of the needs of
the customer. Secondly those in the third group whose style of advocacy could be
described as abrasive.

Fifthly those who know and discriminate.
There are quite a number of criteria which have to be considered.
User's informed preferences.
User's previous experience.
User's prejudice.
Size of dwelling: Space v. cylinder benefits.
User's HW usage patterns.
Instant Availability v. Storage heat losses.
Number and size of simultaneous or back-to-back HW demands
(Showers v. baths.)
Quality of mains supply.
Pre-Existing arrangements, cost and upheaval implications.
...

--
Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
The FAQ for uk.diy is at http://www.diyfaq.org.uk
Gas fitting FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFitting.html
Sealed CH FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/SealedCH.html