{"guid":"63099a18-f8c9-53f6-800d-1cd98ab86de0","title":"Combi Boilers Suck, My Plumbing Pipe Dream","subtitle":null,"slug":"emf2026-75-1-combi-boilers-suck-my-plumbing-pipe-dream","link":"https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2026/75-combi-boilers-suck-my-plumbing-pipe-dream","description":"Get a house they said, it'll be fun they said. Well, not on a icy February morning when you step into the shower and it runs ice cold, it isn't. Modern UK plumbing is based around combi-boilers, which is the plumbing equivalent of flying a fighter jet with no ejection seat - when things go wrong, oh boy do they go wrong. They provide a lovely standardized plumbing system in a box, greatly reducing the gubbins needed in your house; but they lack any flexibility, or backup plan.\n\nMy crazy plan is to cram into a small house: the facility to heat water conventionally (via a boiler), and via thermal solar, ...and via a solid fuel burning back boiler, ...and an electric heater. Needless to say, none of this is 'standard', so a magical system in a box won't work. This is where that February morning comes to bite, the old boiler decided to pack-up a month ahead of schedule, before any of this new stuff was ready. I can assure you, the old 1940s way of heating water with a kettle is a right royal faff.\n\nBy the end of the talk, you'll know exactly why combi boilers suck; what this vented nonsense is; what gravity has to do with anything; stuff about zones; what my secret s plan is, and why not y; and why, technically speaking (the best kind of speaking), it is illegal to remove a heatpump system in the UK if you don't like it.\n\nLicensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/","original_language":"eng","persons":["Oliver Trojak"],"view_count":4,"promoted":false,"date":"2026-07-18T15:10:00.000+02:00","release_date":"2026-07-18T00:00:00.000+02:00","updated_at":"2026-07-19T12:15:05.696+02:00","tags":["7501","2026","emf2026","talk","Stage B","emf2026-eng","Day 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