What’s A Combi Boiler?
Picking a new boiler is a difficult process, I mean what is a combi boiler anyway? It’s not too difficult, don’t worry, a combi boiler is – you’ve guessed it – a combination boiler. And all that really means is the boiler can provide a combination of heating and hot water. That’s it. Easy, right?
Do I Already Have One?
Do I already have a combi boiler? The easiest way to understand this is do you have instant hot water, just turn the tap or use the shower and it runs and runs endlessly? That’s a combi boiler. If you have to program when the hot water comes on or you can run out of hot water then you most likely do not have a combi boiler. You have stored hot water that is heated via an immersion heater, by the boiler or other means like solar. Once that hot water is used you need to wait until that stored water is heated by whatever means.
Bigger Homes
There is a downside to combi boilers. They do struggle with 2 showers or baths at the same time. It’s possible but you do need a lot of water coming into the boiler and the right boiler to cope. Larger houses with multiple bathrooms ofter have stored hot water. Also when the combi boiler is providing hot water, it is no longer providing heat. It’s only capable of doing either hot water or heating, not both.
In A Nutshell
Most houses, especially with 1 or 2 bathrooms are fine with a combi boiler and it’s cheaper to heat up hot water on demand than it is to heat up the same stored water and then not use it all, which is a bit wasteful but not always avoidable.
I hoped this helped, any questions, give us a call or send an email and we’ll do our best to help you.
