Well, that seems to depend on what country you're in. This article from the U.K., where the government mandates condensing boilers for all replacements, says that they're a waste of money. But read the whole piece and give some thought to the antique homes many of these modern marvels are serving, and consider as well the promises of the salesmen. The government offered an incentive; the salesmen pounced on it, and a lot of people scrapped older boilers that had been running just fine. Oh, and toss in questionable installation techniques and an unusually cold British winter and what you get is a lot of food for thought.

I've been following this story for the past year, partly because of the fight over a new radiant system in a hospital that can get the floor's temperature up to a point where folks can't walk on it, but mostly, I'm following it so I can marvel at the way the Welsh name things. Hey, we're talking about the new Ysbyty Cwm Rhondda hospital here. Go ahead; you say it.

Here's an interesting proposal that's sprouted up in Maine, where about 80% of the folks heat with oil. Read it over and let me know what you think. It seems pretty creative to me.

Know any good installers? Tell them to move to Maine. Thanks to Tom Gocze for the heads-up on this story. It sounds like Tony Soprano had a hand in these jobs. You can't make this stuff up.

There's some justice in this if it's true, even if it's against the law, which seems crazy in itself. I wonder if the carpenters will show up next. Hmm.

This has nothing to do with heating, but it served to make me feel quite stupid. I did get the one about the manhole cover right, though. Thanks to my son-in-law, Adam, for this one. He did as well as I did, but he was smart enough to marry Colleen.

Unusual enough to fool the firemen. Sometimes, where there's smoke, there's just steam. And I wonder who stole the radiators. Maybe those guys from Spain!

Amazon does, and don't you just crave one? It has nothing to with heating, but please, please, please, read all the reviews.

Hug your kids.