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Comment by sgt | Hacker News Reader

What is the "heating thing when you use warm water"? Aren't water heaters quiet since they constantly boil the water?

"Combi boiler" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tankless_water_heating#Combina...). Are these not common elsewhere in the world? We got rid of our old tank and central heating system and replaced it with a combi a few years ago. We simultaneously gained lots of extra space - a whole walk-in cupboard and a lot of loft space - while gaining a new device which requires hundreds of pounds of replacement parts every year. Really the most unreliable of technologies, but also very convenient when it's working.

In the UK most homes don't have a hot water tank. We have a wall mounted gas boiler, that heats water on demand. These are often located in the kitchen.

New builds in the last 10-15 years now typically have “unvented” systems - you still have the combi boiler unit but instead of heating on demand, it circulates hot water through a coil in a mains-pressurised insulated tank. The advantage of this is that cold and hot water are both at the same pressure, and you don’t have to wait for the combi to kick in once you open the tap.

I've never met anyone in Sweden burning anything that isn't wood to heat things in their home (except the district heating, which burns our sorted trash) in a central location. And the people burning wood usually only do it during the winter months when it's really chilly outside, else it's heat pumps or electric.

> These are often located in the kitchen

Also, traditionally, in an 'airing cupboard': a space where washed clothes 'air' before being put in drawers. There is a lot of variation.

Here it’s common to have a combination of hot water and heating. Sometimes with a boiler. But in general it’s on-demand gas heating

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