The combined boiler: a story

It is not only this century and the last, that man has tried to heat his homes and water.

Throughout history mankind has tried to warm their cavemen homes with fire. Ancient Asians used fireplaces and stoves to heat water or air, channeled through their floors. While the Romans used hypocausts to heat their public baths and villas and the Spanish irradiated their floors with a system known locally as ‘gloria’, which used hay as fuel.

During the Middle Ages, when fireplaces began to become popular, heating systems became practically unknown. Until in 1777, William Murdoch discovered that gas could be used as light. Then, in 1824, the birth of the gas stove arose, and it naturally evolved to be used for heating homes and water for bathing. Surprisingly, the baths were not used until 1850 when the gas jets heated the bath from below.

However, it was not until 1868 that Benjamin Maugham, a painter and decorator, had the idea of ​​heating water with gas. Although, Maugham did not realize, heating technology for our homes was born in the 21st century. He is generally accepted as the inventor of the combined boiler ‘Combi’, which he called “the geyser”.

Maugham’s invention, disappointingly, was deemed dangerous and a health hazard as it had no temperature controls, so it was possible to get burned, and it had no vent, meaning that people could be exposed to lethal emissions. . He was not an engineer and would make little or no money from his invention.

But in 1889, 21 years later, a Norwegian engineer Edwin Ruud came across the prototype of the Maughams ‘Gas Geyser’ and, after studying the design drawings and making some improvements, Ruud launched his own water heater in the USA. After emigrating from Norway. The new Ruud Manufacturing company was a great success and is still running today in Pittsburgh.

Combination boilers were initially popular in the US and were exported to Europe where it was very popular, however in the UK many people opted for the traditional system boiler which utilized the space in the loft and allowed that many people bathed simultaneously. It is only in the last 10-15 years that combination boilers have started to emerge as the number one boiler system in the UK, credited with over 50% of all new boiler installations.

With rising energy prices year after year, many people have opted for the combination boiler due to its advancement in efficiency, energy cost savings, and the increasing need for more storage space in their homes compared to the high cost of inefficient operation and the enormous storage needs of traditional system boilers.