Boilers

[jgharston]

Thought for the day. Why is a central heating boiler called a boiler when, if it actually boils the water it's faulty.

JGH

[Andrew Mawson]

Historical no doubt: originally there would have been a boiling pan on the range as a ready source of hot water. Then came the 'back boiler'. Then over time what people now know as a boiler.

AWEM

[Nightjar]

Probably because steam heating systems pre-date hot water heating systems and the name has stuck.

Steam heating needs no pumps or fans, working by steam pressure and gravity return. They can use a single pipe for both supply of steam and the return of condensate, although two pipe systems also exist. However, they suffer from long lag times, not a problem if one of the servants came around before you woke up to turn the radiator on, and are relatively inefficient. They have, therefore, generally been replaced by hot water systems, except where the steam is a by-product of another process, such as the New York City district heating system.

Colin Bignell

[The Natural Philosopher]

"In this room, the heat pipes just cough The country music station plays soft rock But its nothing, really nothing to turn off"

(Visions of Johanna, Bob Dylan).

[Iain Archer]

The Natural Philosopher wrote on Thu, 30 May 2013 at 09:28:53 GMT

It's so engrained in memory that I'm not even going to check. That "rock" shouldn't be there, should it?

[F]

And why do Merkins drive on the Parkway and park on the driveway?

[jgharston]

I drive along Sheffield Parkway and Mosborough Parkway to escape from Sheffield (UK).

JGH

[Peter Moylan]

If you're talking about poultry, the usual term is "an old boiler".

[The Natural Philosopher]

You may well be right...

[The Natural Philosopher]

that's not poultry...alone. :-)

[Lewis]

Not if it's generating steam for heat, surely.

[Huge]

Except that in America, where steam heat is much more common than here, call them "furnaces".

[Brian Gaff]

Well what is actually boiling. Pressure changes the boiling point. That is why when one ruptures you get an explosion as it instantly turns to steam.

Brian

[harry]

They are still going strong in the USA.

[ARW]

Trust me. There are more escape routes than those two roads:-)

[David Hatunen]

Because of this possibility, hot water heaters above a certain size are required to follow the Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers

[Lewis]

No, a furnace is a forced-air furnace and has nothing to do with steam.

[Steve Firth]

You ain't frum around these here parts are yew boy?

[John Williamson]

Common parlance in the USA calls any device used to generate heat for a whole building a furnace.

[Frank Erskine]

Where's the relevance to uk.d-i-y?