Uninformed american

[EDLEE]

I've been enjoying your site for a few monthes, now. I'm always interested in the questions and answers involving home repair and diy stuff, but am confused about a number of things. Apparantly, many homes in the UK have single heat sourses for both home heating and hot water. Here, the norm is separate heat sourses. Another difference is in diy concerning plumbing and electrical work. It seems that those who sound the most knowledgable are the ones who most often discourage anyone from doing this work. We have many regulations concerning these fields, but they don't hold us back much. I apologize for running on like this and am unsure of exactly what to ask other than for a little explanation of the " British " attitude about diy.

[buildersmate]

Go back 40 years and most UK houses had hot water supplied by a large electrical element (immersion heater) inside the hot water tank. Some houses had an instant water heater over the kitchen sink. Heating was stand-alone coal fires, electric fires - so it was separate systems.
As central heating with radiators took off in the 70s, someone realised one could heat both CH and hot water off the same pipework circuits. So, yes, its very common, using a single boiler fired by oil or gas.
The Regulations are there to provide safe houses. For many years it has been illegal to connect up gas or oil igniting systems (fires or boilers). 2 years ago this was extended to certain aspects of electrical wiring - mainly where the risk of electric shock is considered higher. It came about after a Member of Parliament's daughter was killed by faulty wiring and he was moved to introduce a Bill to minimise future deaths.
There are still many things one can do oneself.

[BillyBB]

Sometimes the phrasing of a question leads you to think they will need more help than just a written answer here.
DIY is a national pastime but can also lead to accidents and expensive remedial work.

[EDLEE]

Thank you very much for your responses. It was hard for me to believe that people were that different just because of a few thousand miles of water. Most of us ( here ) take great pride and satisfaction in doing things around the house. Just as we feel quite a loss when things don't go as we had hoped, (Both emotionally and financially).

[MrMicrobore]

You are quite correct in your assumption that most of the heating and hot water services in the UK domestic systems are from a single source, either a gas, oil fired or solid fuel boiler either heating the water using an indirect storage cylinder with integral heating coil and separately controlled heating circuits or the increasingly popular combi gas or oil fired boilers. Separate heating and domestic hot water systems are more common in commercial or industrial premises however. Our regulations regarding work particularly in connection with work in connection with gas associated work are not just discouraged but are actually illegal carrying heavy fines and even imprisonment if carried out by un qualified people particularly those carrying out work for financial gain, but we have a very active DIY population in regards to Plumbing, certain aspects of electrical work and many other activities and being British, our natural tendency is flout some of these many regulations where we think we can get away with it.

I am a follower of Yahoo Answers and many of the UK questions are answered by Americans and from these, I assume that steam systems are still used in both domestic and commercial premises. I have never seen a domestic steam installation in all my 57 years in the industry and we were removing steam systems to be replaced by hot water heating systems in commercial premises back in the sixties, so steam is only used in process work in industrial premises in general now. Since the boom in warm air systems in the sixties and seventies these are rarely installed in houses these days due I think to low tec and cowboy installations. Baseboard heating also suffered due to the low quality of equipment.

We were installing underfloor heating in Cathedrals, offices etc back in the 1950,s but due to the advances in plastics, these systems are common in domestic premises now and sit heat pump and condensing boiler systems. I have kept my answer brief and have only scratched the surface.

Hope his is useful.

Regards. Mr. Microbore