Changing trends in heating.

When I was growing up, we had no central heating, but open fires in the dining room and front room.
There was an Ascot heater over the bath, which could be temperamental. Usually the completely tiled, black and white bathroom, was freezing cold in winter.
I remember having a little gas fire in my bedroom, and being allowed to light it. The airing cupboard was also in my bedroom, and so I used to put my clothes on the hot water tank, to warm them up before I got dressed. But, I was terrified of it springing a leak.

We had central heating installed before I went to grammar school, with a lovely little coke fired boiler, with a nifty little handle to open the lid. It's chimney had a gadget fixed around it, with spokes coming off, that mum used as an airer. That may have been dad's invention, he was good at those.
When we got married and moved into our bungalow, we had an anthracite fired boiler in the kitchen. It's a good job the floor was heavy duty tiles, as sometimes the fire roared away, and we had to dump all the hot coals on the floor.
Now, it's a newish gas fired boiler and new! radiators.
These were a present to ourselves, as we haven't had a holiday this year. ?

We had coal fires in our living room and two of the bedrooms ,Mum added electric storage heaters to that in the early 70's.The house was never hot and a heat ring round the light in the only bathroom did nothing unless you stood under it.
I got married in 1975,we were very lucky to get a brand new council house,two bedrooms and boxroom and one bathroom upstairs ,living room and dining kitchen downstairs .there was central heating downstairs only .It was a central boiler for the whole estate and the heating was included with our rent and rates.
The first flat we bought after 8 years of marriage had central heating that we installed before we moved in ,it cost an arm and a leg but it made a difference.
Heating hasn't really progressed ,we were just saying that last night its still a boiler and radiators ,though the seperate thermostats mean each room can have the temperature controlled to suit .
We're still looking to downsize and your underfloor heating and woodburner sound ideal ,so we might look for somewhere we could do that .

We have a heat pump, it is meant to be cheaper. But yes, through the years my parents had coal fires, then Baxi, then storage heaters. We I married (1970) our first house had coal central heating which we converted to gas. We moved to a huse with oil central heating - it was painful the oil turned to sludge and we had to go out to the garage to switch it on again - I remember a pretty cold winter with it. We converted to gas again and that was fine. Since then we have had gas central heating in every house until this one which we converterd to heat pump

We had coal fires, and from 1948 in a different house we also had gas fires in the larger bedrooms (not mine).

In 1958 my father reluctantly allowed gas central heating - but not upstairs, because he didn’t think that was healthy. By this time my grandfather (who had lived with us) had died, so I had one of the bedrooms with a gas fire, such a luxury. The cat loved to sleep on the boiler in the kitchen, and when the heating was turned off in the summer she looked most offended when she discovered the boiler was cold!

I think most boilers now are able to be used with hydrogen Ann so you won't get cold!!

When I was small we had a fire in the main living room and a 'geyser' over the sink in the kitchen. We went to my Nan's for a bath once a week. We had a strip wash in the kitchen the rest of the time - or not if it was very cold. There was no heating anywhere else.

Our next house had a coke boiler which heated the water and kept the kitchen warm. The pipes went through my bedroom so I was ok too. We had a fire in the lounge.

Next house was really warm as we had a boiler in the kitchen and a radiator in every room!!

DH and I have always had houses with some form of central heating and our latest version is, as Ann says, controlled by our phones if we want to. We have thermostatic valves on most radiators which can also be operated on our phones.

We didn't even have a telephone until I was about 14!

How things change!!

Yes indeed Annsixty, times have changed and in the case of heating definitely for the better. I grew up in the tropics but returned to the UK in the sixties, we had a brand new house with a coal fire but no central heating, I remember getting dressed for school when icicles froze on the windows and we were allowed one bar on a tiny electric fire for five minutes.
I married and emigrated to Queensland and the warmth. Returned to the UK in the late 70's to a gas boiler run central heating system.
Now we live in the sticks with no mains gas so we have underfloor heating run by an air source heat pump, bliss. Also have a wood burner, not necessary but lovely.

I do wonder where the technology is going although I understand, I think, the reasoning behind phasing out gas boilers. When we moved into our current house, it had gas central heating but with an ancient boiler which would need replacing so we decided that, as this is going to be our last move, we would research alternatives to just updating the gas central heating and boiler. There are alternatives such as heat exchangers etc., but they are far more expensive than a gas boiler. So, we opted for an efficient boiler, zoned thermostats and spent a great deal of money on insulation of floors, walls, loft, decent windows etc. So, like many things, the theories are there but the practicalities? Not yet. We would all like to save the planet and cut our carbon footprint, but when you are talking about a 20 year payback period for things like rain water recycling, heat exchangers etc., it is unlikely to be a popular choice, especially at our age.

We have an oil boiler as we are in the sticks with no gas. These are never mentioned. We also have a wood burner. All wrong I suppose