"Hydronic" is an adjective, modifying the word "boiler", Dimbulb. According to you, if they don't boil (water) they can't be called "boilers", hydronic or not. Wrong again, AlwaysWrong.
That's three more strikes, Dimbulb. You must stay up all night thinking of more ways to be wrong.
What's the matter? Wasn't the plate of shit you had for breakfast this morning skanky enough for you?
You've just proved me right, Dimmie. It is you who doesn't understand the English language, Dimbulb. "Hydronic" modifies "boiler". "Boiler" is one word. That which heats water for space heating purposes is called a "boiler". That which heats air, for the same purpose, is called a "furnace". Now, go back to thinking up *new* ways of being wrong. This one is old.
Interestingly, in English English, a furnace would usually be something that is used to heat material to a very high temperature - eg to melt metals. The word wouldn't be used for something that merely heated air to a few tens of degrees above ambient.
Conversely, the Oxford English Dictionary defines a boiler as, "A fuel-burning apparatus for heating water, especially a device providing a domestic hot-water supply or serving a central heating system".
If the "boiler" is electrically powered, but doing the same job of heating water by a few tens of degrees - it would be called an immersion or hot water tank - and not a boiler.
I can't comment on the meaning of the words in American English. But there are, of course, many words that differ in meaning between America and England.
People walk on the pavement in the UK. They wear trousers over their pants. Teachers hand over a rubber to their students to use to correct their mistakes and not to prevent them..
This diagram shows a very typical central heating system in the UK:
There was actually a very serious accident in the UK recently, when a fauly central heating boiler did indeed produce boiling water. The diagram shows that a tank in the loft is used to hold feed water for the heating system. It also takes the excess as water in the system expands as it is heated. In this accident, the boiling water led to a lot of expansion and a lot of very hot water going up into the tank. The tank was made of plastic (again very typical) and softened - allowing its contents of several tens of gallons of water to pour out into the loft, through the ceiling and onto the bed of a child sleeping in the room below. Very, very sad.
They aren't dictionary references.
So do we over here. We also walk on what we refer to as "sidewalks".
So do we, if we are going fishing in deep water.
Though some are still made of rubber, most erasers over here are now of a different media, at least as far as professionals go.
Nice illustrations.
Likely also where steam is used to turn turbines for electrical power generation.
I don't like hearing about sad news like that.
What would you call something that heats air to heat a building?
Tell that to Dimbulb.
The boilers I've had heat both domestic and heating water. They've had a separate coil in the boiler for the domestic water, making the boiler more or less a tankless heater. Some use an external storage tank with a heat exchanger and a zone off the heating water to heat domestic water.
If it's used to heat domestic water it's called a "water heater". I've never heard of electricity used in a hydronic heating unit. Perhaps they're not used because the water has to be heated to at least 180F to get any efficiency out of the baseboard radiators.
Dimbulb can't either.
...and get "knocked up" by the hotel staff in the morning.
This is quite similar to one of the heating plants commonly used in the US, except we don't normally have the "feed tanks", and never in the attic (if that's what the schematic is showing). Instead of the feed tanks the boiler and domestic water are fed from the city water or well (with perhaps a small storage/pressure tank). The boiler has a pressure reducer off the main water supply and usually an expansion tank to take up the slack.
Your diagram shows the option with the heat exchanger and storage tank for domestic water. That's fairly common, but more common is a separate heating coil in the boiler. Separate water heaters are also common, particularly if gas is available. I had the domestic coil because the boiler was converted from oil to natural gas and never got around to changing the hot water supply.
Steam boilers are also used in large commercial/industrial applications and some older homes. They're no longer used much for homes though.
Ouch! There was a steam accident recently in NYC where an underground steam main blew, killing a woman on the street above. High pressure steam can be nasty.
Nope, no breakfast at all, Dimbulb. I don't live with you, though no one could.
It is NOT an adjective when it is used as the moniker for the device.
You're an idiot. It certainly isn't a proper noun.
The two words together are a MONIKER, and they BOTH form said MONIKER.
Get a clue, idiot.
That qualifies also as a furnace here in the USA. What would a domestic force air furnace be called in the UK?
That was not from the steam, but a hart attack. The injuries to the other victims are quite serious. I think one is still in the hospital. Thought the Tow truck driver and passenger (the tow truck ended at the bottom of the hole) both have been released for a while now.
The steam rose 65 ft in the air from what I recall hearing.
Wrong again.
After you, AlwaysWrong.
OK, you got my burner goin'...
The worrisome flatmate is correct that -- if you take the view of considering the time the heat is enjoyed (ie, briefly before going to work) -- it is more costly *per minute of enjoyed benefit* from the fuel used to heat the flat. But the cost of that fuel used to heat for that 10 minutes isn't any more costly than that same 10 minutes when they get home in the evening. Except... Because it is, presumably, colder in the a.m. than in the p.m., it may require a *little* more fuel to heat the flat to 24o C in the morning, but as Sue said, it doesn't amount to much more "scratch".
The heat isn't "more costly", but without anyone there to enjoy it after you've both gone to work, maybe that's what he means by "costly": a few pence for only a few minutes of warmth, whereas if it was evening, someone might enjoy that comfort for an hour.
My read is that the flatmate is saying, in essence, "Suck it up, matey. It's such a small period of time to be cold before getting into your car (which can be heated with waste heat from the burning of fuel -- basically, "free") or arriving at work where *they* pay for your comfort".
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