The Secret Life of the Central Heating System - Remastered

[@gargarman]

When I first watched this I was 10, now I'm 42 and a heating engineer. Still as, if not more enjoyable this time round!

[@2KMMC2]

Heating engineer mmm sounds extra

[@TomB0667]

I first saw this in the 80's. Still have the VHS tapes :-)

[@TheChipmunk2008]

@@2KMMC2 extra what

[@curiositycloset2359]

I missed this, pretty much the same age. What channel was it on?

[@TheChipmunk2008]

@@curiositycloset2359 channel 4, not sure what times

[@holobolo1661]

Loved the giant Rex pulling the house apart, great editing.

[@amazonmab3085]

Ah now. Finally, decades later I can point my finger at the man mostly responsible for me taking apart pretty much everything my parents brought. As you can imagine, I should have gone to bed 5 hours ago but no. Oh no. Im binge watching the lot! Brilliant to see these again. Best programs ever broadcast. End of.

[@jakenkid]

I am 38, in the United States, and I am *SO, SO GLAD THAT I HAPPENED UPON THESE VIDEOS!* This guy is legendary, and his endless interest, even into his later years, knowing about Google and KZbin, what a hero! I'm betting he taught an entire generation of brits how to handle the breakdown of automated life!

[@bombasticbuster9340]

I am 53 yrs old. This show helped me decide to teach science. I did for 20 yrs! Thank you!

[@seankayll9017]

Same here! I even used Tim's videos in a few lessons. Thanks Tim.

[@chimebirdplayer3327]

As an American, I definitely know what you mean when you say that different countries hear their home differently: Here in The States for example, although heating based on hot water is still common up North, Central Air (for both heating and cooling) is extremely common throughout what we call the sunbelt. And I've seen that the Germans have very impressive systems in their homes. Speaking of which, I'd highly suggest that you start another "Secret Life of Machines" series (in addition to this "Secret Life of Components") series you're working on now, and you focus on Air Conditioning in one of the episodes. In addition to Air Conditioning, I'd suggest the other episodes focus on: -The Internet -The Smartphone (which also mentions PDAs and "Pocket Computers") -The Smoke Detector -The CD Player -The Digital Camera (which also mentions Film Cameras) -The Airplane -The MRI -The X-Ray (which also mentions the CT Scanner) -The Ultrasound Machine (and lastly) -The Hospital (you did an episode on The Office; so, why not The Hospital) Btw, I never knew that the word "masterpiece" had the origin of referring to works that apprentices did in order to become masters; it reminds me of how you explains the origin of the word "blueprint" in your episode on "The Copier".

[@bobjary9382]

My mum and dad got a fridge as a wedding present in the 50s . It was still going when mum went to a nursing home and dad into a flat in 2001. No built in obsolescence.

[@piconano]

It's nice to see these shows again after so many years.

[@damageman]

Mr. Tim you uploaded my entire childhood! Just need someone to upload Beyond 2000 and I can show my son who loves tinkering all the shows that got me tinkering and loving technology. This made my day, my month and my year to be able to rewatch and share!

[@fjccommish]

Your son tinkers all the shows? What does that mean? If a TV show was your entire childhood, then you had an awful childhood.

[@donaldasayers]

Thanks for getting these remastered, I can enjoy them again. Funny thing about the Roman hypocausts is that no one knows what happened to the smoke, how it exited the flues in the walls: were there just holes under the eaves or were there lots of little chimneys. No Roman villa in the UK has survived with enough intact to be able to tell.

[@ronniepirtlejr2606]

Discovered Tim at the age of 51. I love fixing things & learning how they work!👍🇺🇸

[@1873Winchester]

In Finland and Sweden they had central heating of a sorts before even modern central heating as well. In these houses the fireplace wasn't an open fireplace, and the chimney was put in the middle of the house and not the edges. The house was built so all rooms touched the chimney and it heated all rooms. The fireplace in the kitchen was connected to it, and often a masonry heater in the main room. People still use this and variations of the system today.

[@1873Winchester]

Also, the efficiencies of these old masonry heaters could reach into the 70% range and maybe 80%. And modern masonry heaters (same design but with secondary air for complete combustion of flue gasses) reach into the 90s. I have read old magazines from the 1950s that talked about a concept called the "heating wall". Basically the house was built around a central brick wall, which had flues running through it, it was a giant chimney. This would be fired from the cellar and the magazine talked about using secondary air and achieving efficiencies into the 90% range. Very impressive for the mid 20th century! Since the efficiency was so high sweeping would not be required often, which required sweeping something like 40 locations to get at everything. This never really took off because oil fired boilers took over.

[@Dukefazon]

I'm 35 years old and didn't see this program as a kid, it wasn't broadcasted in my country. But as an adult I still find a lot of interesting information in these short episodes. Just during this episode I gasped out audible "wow" 3 times. I really like the on-hand presentation style. I learned a lot during this episode but I was looking forward to this the least. So that means the word master-piece! I thought it means a master creates a piece of something that's refined to be perfect and it's the master-piece, the piece every subsequent piece is modelled after and compared to. Maybe that's also the meaning today, I don't know.

[@davidjones8680]

What a brilliant programme, it inspired me to do more researching and fit my own central heating system to a large Victorian property back in Decemder 1989. All it had when we moved in was a single gas fire in the living room, and an immersion heater for hot water. I fitted a multifuel cooker similar to an Aga, the very large kitchen was transformed into an oasis of heat. The hot water was always hot no matter what time of the day, and tagged on the back of that was micro bore pipe system feeding a radiator in every room except the kitchen. I burned mainly free hardwood offcutts sourced from my employer at the time. They were very happy and very cosy days.

[@davidpanton3192]

I was already an adult when I first saw this and now it needs to be remastered. I feel old.

[@mfx1]

Another energy saver with modern boilers is the old ones had a small pilot light burning 24/7/365 to light the main burner whenever needed but now they use spark ignition and flame rectification (ionization) sensing to check it's safely lit rather than spewing out gas, older boilers used thermocouples which held the gas valve open with a small electromagnet, if the flame went out, the magnet would release, closing the gas valve until it was manually reset, new boilers also have "modulating" gas valves so the burner can better meet demand without wasting fuel.

[@cmmartti]

It's still common for natural gas fireplaces to use thermocouples and thermopiles. Of course, these aren't condensing, so there's a lot of wasted heat out the exhaust compared to modern high-efficiency furnaces.

[@mfx1]

@@cmmartti Usually because you nearly always light them manually (thermocouple controlled valves need you to manually hold them in long enough so they get hot enough to energise the magnet and hold the valve in after you let go), also thermocouple systems need no external power to work.

[@pctech911]

Born in 1982 believe it or not this show fascinated me, I’ve always been interested in how things work. Great to see Tim again.

[@jsf4star891]

Thanks for remastering these, Tim. Also, good to see Rex. R.I.P. Dr. Garrod

[@m1geo]

Did Rex have a PhD? I never knew! 😮

[@MichaelSteeves]

As a Canadian Engineer I find this fascinating. Systems are *so* different! In my part of the country heat was typically oil fired, either hot water or air systems until the 1970s when electric baseboard heat became the most common. Only now are they talking about a "smart grid" that will have the ability to control unnecessary loads based on overall demand.

[@Minalkra]

I was thinking similar things. I'm American and I've lived in houses built from the 1940's to the 1970's and while the house from the 40's has some evidence of an oil fired water system, houses from the 1960's onward (I skipped the 50's, don't know why) all seemed to center around forced air systems. Even the 40's house had a forced air system installed - from what I can tell - sometime in the early 60's. America seems to have mostly abandoned the radiator type water systems when they could afford to in favor of forced-air systems as soon as those were developed enough for home use.

[@CT-vm4gf]

I’m from Australia and we went from wood fired space heating, to gas fired to heat pump.

[@ChoppingtonOtter]

These shows were absolutely fantastic. I work with loads of young guys and they are absolutely clueless how anything works. I wish I could get them to watch these and discover the fascination with knowing how things work.

[@babbadge]

Great series. I think it's time for an update on the topic of house heating, covering high efficiency central heating, floor heating, heat pump, solar boiler, electric heating, ir heating, etc.

[@TheRealKaiProton]

I used to work for a local housing association, and the Damp form Sealing the houses with double glazing and cavity wall insulation and loft insulation was one of the most complained about things, and of course if you ask someone to open windows to let fresh air through they would freak out

[@curiositycloset2359]

People are mad about that. I always sleep with a window open. Can't have it any other way.

[@dennisf.macintyre117]

My adult children live in South Korea where the one in a two story cement dwelling (thick roof included) where their home transitioned from an oil boiler to a gas boiler, both on the outside of the home where the heat is piped through hoses in the cement floors. In winter, clothes are dried indoors adding humidity, either on a clothes drying rack or if wanted quickly, laid on the floor overnight., Enjoy your videos!

[@Smidge204]

Heat recovery ventilators are amazing; Cuts the ventilation portion of the heating or cooling load by roughly 50%. Might not seem like a big deal for a house, but in commercial spaces where you typically have a lot of fresh air coming in it's a huge savings both initial install and operating costs.

[@madm4tty]

Appreciate this, one of my favourite TV series!

[@globeflicker9216]

Pretty cool! And now we have 90% plus condensing gas boilers too! Never saw a rotary oil burner either.

[@Martindyna]

The Wallflame burner is a late 1940s American design (Timken) but was only incorporated into UK boilers in the early to mid 1960s I believe. It was a vast improvement on vapourising wick & pot burners in terms of efficiency due to better excess air management and they were easily switched on & off according to demand without producing excessive smoke (as compared to the fan pressurised on / off pot burner). heatinghelp.com/assets/documents/108.pdf As Tim mentions the Pressure Jet burner (Gun type burner U.S.A.) is better still and are made to this day. Oil fired boilers are also condensing type by law in the UK btw (unless there's a very good reason not to specify one due to site conditions); they use grade 316 stainless steel heat exchangers for the condensing part of the boiler due to the sulphur content in the kerosine producing dilute sulphuric acid in the condensate. Gas oil (similar to Diesel oil) is not used in condensing oil fired boilers due to the higher ash content which would quickly foul the condensing heat exchanger.

[@globeflicker9216]

Martindyna Thanks for the reply! I see your familiar with Dan Holohan, he’s a gem for old timey piping and equipment. I work on boilers and piping (USA, licensed Master Journeyman), often on systems that are gravity conversions and steam. I love that stuff, it’s ingenious but requires some love now that it’s typically a 100 years old to keep purring along. When I was a kid first starting in the late 70’s we were still finding pot and occasionally wick burners. Condensing oil systems are pretty rare in my area, mostly for the reason you stated in either hot water, steam or forced air application. I prefer the new condensing gas equipment for efficiency, I’m working on a 1MBH system now that tandems 2 of them with a 3rd 95% on the opposite end of the building which was primary/secondary tied into the mains in the building. The building owner had no idea their front mechanical room was tied into the back mechanical system until one of my techs and I started pulling out a 200’ path of ceiling tiles to find the connection. Love my job!

[@Martindyna]

@@globeflicker9216 Actually I wasn't aware of Dan, I've just always taken an interest from a small boy in heating systems but I'll check some of his videos out now so thanks for the heads up. Nice to be paid for a job you enjoy.

[@globeflicker9216]

Martindyna Dan gets into old Steam systems and has a simple way of explaining the physics that makes it work. He has some good history based vids on the subject, too. Enjoy! I’m lucky enough my hobby is also my paying job.

[@Martindyna]

@@globeflicker9216 Thanks, I’ll definitely take a look. If you hadn’t realised, my channel thumbnail is the flame pattern of a Wallflame burner btw.

[@gh-ur2lx]

new boilers are great. 1% increase in efficiency, 50% decrease in reliability.

[@raytrevor1]

And twice the price to buy and install!

[@mikafoxx2717]

It's not the efficiency that's making it less reliable, it's the cost cutting!

[@Wrang15]

One of the better shows i ever saw on tv.... I find it funny i am back to buring wood do to modern energy cost. Nebiors were just splint wood today too. But modern wood stoves are a wonder too.

[@JFrizey]

Only just discovered these videos, they were a bit before my time but by god we could use videos like this today! There seems to be alot of people around my age who simply dont want to know how things work, its worrying. Also can we take a moment to appreciate that asscot advert tune, its going to be stuck in my head for days. Thank you for posting!

[@HDXFH]

Asscot 😂

[@Dmander816]

Loving these remastered episodes. Hope Tim does the rest.

[@BradfordNeedham]

Being from the USA I was shocked to learn while vacationing in Wales that if the boiler goes out, you can get an electrician - if you suspect the problem is electrical - or a plumber - if you think the problem is with the pipes, but to diagnose a boiler problem you need to hire an expensive Engineer, who can work on both electrical and plumbing boiler issues. Thank you for this fantastic and accessible video!

[@matthewunderwood6142]

Your editing and content were always great. The cat @0:59 shows the above and beyond approach to details that I always enjoyed. You can hear the cat purring, and acting like this is all normal. Classic.

[@jakeparr4532]

Thank you Tim for taking the time to repost these episodes. My Canadian central heating boiler is quite similar to the boiler described in this episode

[@TimeSurfer206]

He's pressing too hard on his bow-drill bits. It's a very fine line of optimal pressure. And so much Thank You for these!

[@gregorymalchuk272]

It never occurred to me that I might be able to help him with his bow drill technique, some 30 years later. You have to have a smaller pocket or slot cut out betneath the place where the drill is, a place for charred material to accumulate without being ground and forced out by the drill. That's where the ember accumulates.

[@Awesomes007]

I've been thinking about this for weeks. Thank you for providing some answers. Reminds me of when the British tried to copy the optical advances from mainland Europe. Turned out it was technique as much as materials.

[@Farlig69]

Regarding the last comment on heating the incoming air with the outgoing air - I lived in a "modern" (built in 2000) house like this that had a balanced ventilation system and it was excellent, especially in winter - I measured the temp differences and on a cold day I had -2deg air coming in being warmend up to 16deg in the heat exchanger... In summer, you just pulled the heat exchanger and replaced it withe a dummy. Oh and all the windows couod still open and close but the system was most efficient with the doors & windows closed. The house was so tight, it was impossible to light the living room fire with the kitchen extractor fan going!

[@seldom_seen_kid]

Fabulous! I am once again a 10 year old boy watching this on a 14" tv in my bedroom, except I'm not, I'm a podgy 44 year old watching it on a 27" lcd on a computer.

[@threesixty8154]

Yet another great episode Tim, thanks so much and especially for the comments at the end. Looks like loads of us are really appreciative!

[@goofyrulez7914]

This was, is, and will always be my favorite episode!

[@TheSpikehere]

Timeless classic of television.

[@matneu27]

Early water central heating systems worked without a circulation pump at the boiler. The tubes to the radiators where reduced in diameter with every step higher in the house. So the flow was only kept up by the thermal syphon principle. That's similar to the modern Cpu coolers with pipes at the finns.

[@PresidenteMc]

excellent documentaries this series. even activating the subtitles (in my case Italian) they are understood very well.

[@lexinexi-hj7zo]

22:42: remember fiber glass? as a kid I would coat my whole body in vasoline or vegetable oil, because when you start sweating the next day or take a hot shower you itch so bad. So glad when they came out with that paper insulation but I wonder what terrible chemical they use to make it fire proof.??

[@fredherfst8148]

It's tiny fibers of glass you may have been exposed to? I stapled fibreglass bats in a new house in 1963 when 16 years old…never again

[@whatevernamegoeshere3644]

A funny note about the condensing boilers. When they started getting to the peak in technology, they reached a point where they advertised them as 103% and above efficiency. And the worst part is they were actually correct! Well. Technically. And legally. The old system for efficiency was based on all gas inputs and products, gas, oxygen, water vapour and CO2. Once they started condensing even the water in the exhaust fumes to squeeze that last bit of energy, they went over the 100% mark in the efficiency rating that was set up for old systems. Water can have a stupid amount of heat stored in it and it really showed here

[@gregorymalchuk272]

It's the difference between the Higher Heating Value (HHV) and Lower Heating Value (LHV) of the fuel.

[@phildxyz]

Great to see these remastered versions of some of my favourite programmes of all time!

[@wisteela]

I love that thatched house model. I wondered if they still had that clock, and if it still worked. It would be great to get it up and running again.

[@tomnwoo]

Seeing all of these again has bought a sincere joy to my week, thank you so much for uploading them.

[@Martindyna]

Interesting progamme. Just a few comments:- 1. The `horizontal chimney' works due to the intense heat in the vertical portion of the system 17:28 as well as due to the fact that the flues are balanced. Later boilers (1980s) have a high temperature fan on the outlet side of the boiler to enable the balanced flue to be smaller and less obtrusive. 2. The solid fuel boiler used is a very old 1950s design of low heat output boiler with no heat exchanger above the fire. There were better designs available at the time with the (usually cast iron) heat exchanger extending above and over the fire (e.g. Ideal made boilers with 2 doors in the vertical front of the boiler, the top one to put the coal in and the bottom one to take the ash & Clinkers out). The top door had an air vent hole with a variable shutter to allow some air to enter above the fire to enable the flamable gases produced when heating the anthracite to be burnt (with a nice blue flame). 3. The oil fired boiler is shown incomplete to show the burner; so unfortunately the heat exchanger detail towards the top of the boiler is not clear. This would show how these boilers were in the order of 75% efficient (while firing, the seasonal efficiency will be lower) although in my view this did vary from manufacturer to manufacturer e.g some had an integral draught regulator, others didn't. The draught regulator prevented a hot chimney from pulling excessive cold air through the boiler & burner (it was just a counterweighted air flap). Also some manufacturers used a lump of `concrete' like material in the top baffle that took ages to warm up which was obviously inefficient and finally some manufacturers insulated the boiler shell with fibreglass wool or similar while others didn't bother. The oil boiler shown is a Wilson Wallflame 60 (60,000 BTU/hour output) manufactured in Kirkby, Liverpool, UK 13:27 BTW the wallflame burner is a late 1940s American design (Timken) that usually burns Kerosine (Paraffin) although it can be modified to burn gasoil (Diesel oil). heatinghelp.com/assets/documents/108.pdf 4. Tim must be a nice guy judging by how the cat starts to purr when he sits on the sofa ! 0:58 Edit As an aside I've always been interested in domestic boilers, in particular oil fired. We moved from London to a new house just outside of Maidenhead in mid 1959 when I was 2 1/2. The house featured part oil fired central heating `that required no stoking' which was really new in the UK then. The Wilson `Oilheat' 35,000 BTU/hr boiler (that came out in I believe 1957) had a vapourising wick modulating burner like an Aga cooker and the CH was pumped with gravity feed to the HWS tank in the airing cupboard. There were no controls apart from the modulating boiler thermostat made by Teddington Controls (I see they're still going in the UK btw) and a manually operated switch for the pump if CH was required. The USA had oil fired `Wallflame' boilers from the late 1940s / early 50s but Wallflame burners which were on / off, fan assisted and thus fully automatic and far more efficient (due to better excess air management) only became available in the UK in the early 60s. Worcester, Henry Wilson & Harford Unical (who made the BSA Hotspur) were I believe the main manufacturers to incorporate this new American burner into boilers over here in the UK.

[@maxout7306]

Good television. Thanks for uploading.

[@videolabguy]

Thank you for your excellent work, Tim. Everyone I know loves your programs. It's a shame that you can't get the original film prints scanned directly into HD. If you did that and sold the episodes as a set, I would gladly purchase them. The show holds up so well over time and it is still a joy to watch. It is so non pretentious compared to fancy schmancy productions that contain literally no useful information and are virtual advertisements for systems manufacturers.

[@wyldebill4178]

That Happy in The Morning ditty popped into my mind while I was in the shower tonight. I remembered seeing this show and ended up here.

[@maxgusatz5644]

Wow Tim, what an absolute treat, I enjoyed this series immensely BITD and it has stuck with me every since, ingrained in my brain. So clever and entertaining with an incredible charm. Thanks so much for your efforts with this (and to Rex of course). There was another series on C4 back then too that I have never been able to recall, it involved a chap scavenging mainly from skips for carpet tubes and pallets to make furniture. Anyone remember it?

[@normanboyes4983]

This was a wonderful body of work. Well done Tim for giving it another life and the directors cut retrospective view is a great idea. Loved watching this again.😀👍

[@brianbrewbaker7482]

I remember watching this series on TV when I was about 10 also. Been looking for it for awhile but didn't know the name of the show.

[@hayd7371]

Thank you for uploading these Tim. You are a wonderful educator and an even better engineer.

[@andrewprettyquick2070]

This Will cheer you up. Houses filled with gas quite often go POP! Not one of them was an unlicensed installer. Only gassafe and corgi houses have gone pop since they invented the licenses.

[@jasonmuller1199]

Great i already watched the entire series and now i get recommended the remastered version? I always enjoy these types of documentaries, better than most of the stuff produced today

[@StationGarageSt]

Steam Clock - definitely a masterpiece

[@RWBHere]

No ads seen here. Using a suitable proxy and browser combination bypasses them all, even sidestepping the latest attempts by Gargoyle to defeat ad blockers. Thanks for the work involved in preparing and uploading these videos.

[@Yorkie0362]

Love that Tim sent his mate up to precariously balance on that wall over the fire pit to change out that hot metal chimney

[@xsbxsbxsb]

Thank you very much for sharing valuable information and knowledge whilst entertaining!

[@HamiltonMechanical]

WOAH TIM! Thank you! I can't wait to show these to my kids in the improved resolution!!!

[@SCAPE0GOAT]

Fantastic to see these programmed again ! I was always taking things apart to see how they worked as a kid, so this series was my absolute favourite when it came out :)

[@TheFreshSpam]

Loving it. Loved the start. Loved it all. Top work you've done and still do

[@joppepeelen]

if im in London i definitely will visit some of your machine. it really really inspires me allot ! its great fun !

[@milos_radovanovic]

Wow, I used to watch these as a kid! Didn't know you had a channel! I'm subscribing!

[@punman5392]

I think the most fascinating thing about all of this is that mechanical thermostats are still quite common today. I still see them all the time in apartment buildings.

[@imansfield]

It’s like if Techmoan and Technology connections went back in a tardis and had a baby.

[@fjccommish]

1:50 The bow is the Boyscout method.

[@williamsmith2919]

Extremely interesting and enlightening, thank you so much. X

[@JamesThigpen]

I’m loving these uploads. I watched these with my dad when I was a kid and they’re still so good. I’d love to hear you talk about the animation during one of the extra segments.

[@n00dles79]

I love you and this channel

[@liquidambar7487]

That’s some good purring 🎙😸

[@jarikinnunen1718]

2:15 The trick is get heat cumulate in charcoal, so first scrape wood to around of stick.

[@Martindyna]

Some more random info .... I had a floor standing Thorn `M' 38/54B gas fired boiler for many years (it was about 26 years old), I remember that the burner made a reassuring roaring noise and the flame looked very clean. Having cracked an egg on the flue collector after the burner had been running for 15 minutes (to allow for the cast iron boiler skin temperature to stabilise) it not only cooked the egg but burnt it completely in seconds! (I had fitted a baffle, intended for the open flue boiler only, in mine for improved efficiency which would have the effect of increasing the flue temperature due to less excess air). I speculate that cast iron boilers become increasingly inefficient over the years as the iron develops a thick skin of rust that can’t be cleaned away using standard flue brushes. As is common for the British if it ain't broke don't fix it attitude because the cast iron boiler lasts we were slow to innovate beyond these boilers; however there was the non condensing Abergas (made in Abergavenny, Wales, UK in the late 60s) that was very efficient (featured on TV - `Tomorrows World') but these were intolerant of poor installations that caused over heating (very low water content boiler). It took Continental Europe to introduce condensing boilers in quantity, I believe the Dutch were amongst the first. Having confirmed that the efficiency was not the best (I had also noticed that the boiler flue never produced `fog' even on start up) I replaced the Thorn `M', although still working, with a Worcester 12Ri (12kW) condensing basic boiler for improved efficiency; this new boiler has been 100% reliable over 14.5 years, I can't recommend it highly enough. P.S. The Thorn `M' cast iron heat exchanger had considerable heat capacity, so much so that a 10 minute pump run on was still cost effective imo.

[@K-Riz314]

I had to do a quick bit of research on push to connect fittings as I thought sharkbites were the first of them to come out in the early 00s. Very interesting.

[@Disc147]

This is really a good watch matey.

[@TheFrogfather1]

My parents had a wallflame boiler. The 8.3KV ignition spark made it impossible to listen to the radio when it was running. Also of note was the rim heater - essentially an induction furnace (many primary windings, 1 secondary), which made the edge of the drum hot to give better ignition.

[@watchviewer]

Great series and really interesting.

[@Martindyna]

Ascot Gas Water Heaters Ltd. was founded in London by Dr Bernard Friedman (who had earlier been importing water heaters and cookers into Russia). It was an agency for selling water heaters made by Junkers of Germany. To begin with the heaters were labelled thus. 15:21

[@TomislavKoren]

Knowledge I collected throughout my life and I'm proud on, Tim Hunkin had in 1985. I kinda feel like I wasted my time learning by myself instead of watching these lovely shows. Sadly, those never aired in my country.

[@no_one_from_nowhere]

Wait, this only has 80 comments? Oh man, this channel is about to get huge. The fact that it hasn’t yet, is criminal. I’m guessing the reason I was deprived of this show is bc I live in the U.S.?

[@TheOtherBill]

We had it on PBS back in the day. Edit: Sorry, cable, not PBS. Both TLC and Discovery.

[@transdimensionalist]

checkout rocket stoves, they are a fairly recent invention that burns cleaner and wastes less heat out the chimney, one heats my geodome up lovely

[@Parakinese]

Rex must have been such a genius as well! ❤️

[@general5104]

Verrry astute THANK YOU I subbed. Bill, from Tn. 🇺🇸

[@scopex2749]

Tim and Rex put so much into this series, programs today do not even come close to as good as this!😕 The 80’s were much better than today’s world. Thanks for the updated films Tim👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👍🏻 Who is the music by Tim please? I know the tune is very old called ‘take five’. 🤔

[@txkflier]

The music is a cover version of Take Five called "The Russians Are Coming" by Val Bennet..

[@J4CK4LFUL]

Oh how I wish we had something like this in the USA when I was a kid!!! ended up having to wait and pay for real school

[@jagmarc]

Wow the Ascot Water Heater, yonks ago in the 60s at a crazy factory I worked at had one in the washroom that used to sometimes malfunction. When you turn the hot tap on if it the gas didn't light straight away the trick was to calmly leave by the door and stand outside a short while, listen then go back in. I didn't know about that the first month working there, I turned on the hot tap and washed in cold water... then a deafening boooooom!! a flash of flame shot out the Ascot and ringing ears. About as noisy as a rock concert and as dangerous as riding the motorbike to work

[@Shahrdad]

In the USA, many houses had gravity hot water heating in the later part of the 19th century. My 1890s house still has its original hot water system. Other houses had a gravity hot air system, often called an "Octapus," where large angled ducts conducted heated air to the rooms. Perhaps central heating took longer to take hold in Britain.

[@Kubulek17]

A lot of British homes were built smaller due to space constraints, retro fitting heating systems in homes not designed for one was difficult.

[@andrewprettyquick2070]

I fixed the gas cooker with exacting methodology such as this. It never broke again and was replaced some 15 years later. (Bypassed the anti put-head-in-oven valve after it failed closed)

[@schneil]

17:54 and now we have condensing boilers, to not waste any exhaust gas heat.

[@emilsitka7590]

I'm wondering if this episode didn't make it to the Discovery Channel back in the day since I don't remember this one.

[@dennis8196]

Modern homes might be better insulated but they never had damp caused by the insulation because they could breath. Give me a 70's house any day.

[@sirhaydn-1]

Also another thing: Reversible Heat pumps have been introduced.

[@dlarge6502]

Shame they barely work and need a fortune that nobody has to install. I think many would give them a go if they were prepared for the complete stripping of the house to re-lay new pipework. Now if you could cheapen them and hook them up to an existing CH system, basically a drop in replacement for the boiler, then you may get people signing up. Till then they will remain an expensive fad. The thing you are told to get but never can.

[@sirhaydn-1]

@@dlarge6502 what do you mean barely work? kzbin.info/www/bejne/bXuYY6B6n7-tqtE

[@fredherfst8148]

We had baseboard, now two mini splits…cool in summer, warm in winter and saves $$ cause efficiency

[@alannock1358]

Only just found this. I remember it the first time round! So interesting to see the complete lack of health and safety on the building sites! Have all the hard hats, gloves, hi-viz clothing etc. saved a single injury in all these years? I believe that ladders are banned on many sites now. How pathetic we have become. This series should be shown in all schools. Engineers will save our economy, not the white collar workers. One series that definitely deserves a reboot.

[@protektwar]

1:54 both pieces of wood muss be from the same type in order to make it work.

[@gushiperson]

We miss you Rex.

[@CelticSaint]

I'm not sure of the year when this program was first broadcast, but I am certain that it was at a time when Great Britain was still a fairly sensible nation, and society was rather pleasant.

[@steamsearcher]

I grew up watching Blue Peter gaining a Badge back in 1970. Always loved making things so did Design and Art. A Level Design saw me build a Lathe... I still have it in my collection of 9 and 3 milling machines. I went on to a Design Degree and life as a Senior Technician 3 D Design at a University. Claim to Fame being the one to Vacuum form the Dash board and lights for THE MIGHTY ATOM Featured in The REAL Top Gear!!! The Designer being a part time Tutor where I worked. Another claim was make in 10 minutes a double concept dreamt up by one of our Product Design Students. Completely SLATED by the Tutor as being impossible of course... Fast forward to today where everyone has a modern Mobile and of course a TABLET!!!! 2 plus 2 sheets of Acrylic, pictures between, keyboards and taped shut. I suggested slightly more rounded corners. But we never perfected the switches!!! I mow spend all day making model 5 inch gauge steam Locomotives and insulating our 60 year old house in Reading. Love David and Lily.

[@markrainford1219]

Damn. I always thought it was two Boy scouts you had to rub together!

[@saltyroe3179]

Before WW2 most faxes were used for sending "were photos" between newspapers or in big businesses that needed to send signed documents. After WW2 during the occupation of Japan, the occupation forces wanted the Japanese newspapers to send articles to each other in a system like the Associated Press. AP used teletype machines which would not work with the gargantuan Japanese character set. Vincent Hultman of the Army Signal Corps had newspaper wire photo FAX machines installed so the articles could be sent as images. Over time Japanese businesses became the world's biggest market for fax machines and they produced their own fax machines. The Japanese invented the digital FAX which increased the quality of the image received and then drastically reduced the price. These digital fax machines from Japan were then sold to the rest of the world. When combined with xerography, the digital fax made it easy to use.