In my "proper" home we have a fully-fledged central heating system, there is a proper boiler that holds hot water, the water is heated by the Aga, or in winter by the aga and the coal-burning stove (which also heats the radiators) or we can use the boiler (which burns oil) if we wish to power both.

This is nice because no matter what anyone does, I always get a constant temperature of water for my shower.

In my student house we have a gas-powered combination boiler, I get a nice hot shower on the proviso that a) no-one uses hot water, or it goes freezing, b) no-one uses cold water (e.g. Washing machine), or I get scalded. The water also takes ages to warm up, whereas at home it is very much "on-demand".

This frustrates me.

If you had an old-style boiler your gas bills would be far higher.

Out of curiosity how big is the house and how many people live there?

Combi boilers are only really suitable for relatively small properties (with one bathroom and up to 3/4 people) otherwise the demand placed on the boiler is too much for it to cope with and you end up with the problems you describe. For larger properties then you really need a full pressurised system with a hot water tank.

However, it's also possible that there is something wrong with your boiler. If the diverter valve has failed then your hot water may only be coming from the spill over from the central heating. Do you have to have the heating on to get any hot water? This happened in my last house and was a real pain during the summer.

I trust your landlord at the student house has provided you with a service/safety certificate for the boiler to confirm it's working properly.
If they haven't then they are breaking the law.

You must have a cheap boiler then. Our combi boiler rocks. Mains pressure for the shower and the temperature doesn't change if somebody uses the taps (although the pressure does drop slightly). It only takes about ten seconds to get hot water.

Instant hot water here too. Takes a few seconds in the kitchen, a little longer upstairs because of the length of the pipe. That would be equally true with a tank though.

Showers are much easier with instant water because the pressure is higher. With a tank, you have to balance the cold so carefully and then if someone turns the tap on you get scolded. With instant, both pressures drop simultaneously so there's no scolding.

The only reason I can see for having a tank full of hot water is for storage. With off-peak electric or solar heating, you need to store the heat until it's used.

I guess if someone turns the cold tap on then you get scalded but they get scolded.


Megflow here btw, a vast improvement on the previous setup.

Our combi-boiler, although a few years old now, has been set up to allow a constant flow to the shower/taps and if the pressure in the system is ok then there should only be a slight drop in pressure until the system recovers. There appears to be little temperature difference if the shower is on and somebody switches on a tap. I like the combi-boiler but agree it has many features to go wrong and an annual maintainance contract is worth the money.

Al

I did an online survey the other day. It was about a new boiler that British Gas is bringing out that generates electricity from your gas supply so you hardly have to buy any from the national grid. The only downside (apart from the initial cost) was that you had to have a hot water tank.

That sounds quite interesting! Have you got a link?

30 year old boiler - may be replaced under scrappage scheme
Immersion tank
Instant hot water
Enough hot water in tank to run two baths

I get about half a second of cold shower before it rectifies itself, [vader] most impressive [/vader].

Afraid not. It was one of those anonymous things. I don't know if i's even out yet.

= Expensive energy bills to heat that much hot water.

My current flat has an oil fired boiler and tank, running 4 flats in the house and land (my flat is an extension over and extension flat, connected to the house and over the garage). Plenty of hot water, don't notice when the others use hot water, but the landlord is too cheap to install a pump, so I have to wait about 2 minutes / 5-10L before I get hot water, if the neighbour downstairs hasn't recently used any hot water.

The new place has a pump running at peak times, so that should make for instant hot water. The tank was replaced in the mid-90s and they dropped to a 30L or so, which provides enough for a bath, with the boiler cutting in a refilling as the level drops. The system there is oil fired.

My girlfriends flat has an electric boiler, which is incredibly expensive - she uses a kettle in the kitchen, when she needs hot water, as it takes several minutes before the water gets warm (pipe runs the complete length of the flat), so a lot of waste. We only generally use it for showers and the ocassional bath.

Blimey! You mean there's something that Germans aren't better than the Brits!