What if...

[NorthernRaider]

I just phoned my mum and she reckons we only had pumpless for 3 years before my dad had one fitted so we could increase the number of radiators we had. she also thinks I remember it being warm during the power cuts because we also had a gas fire (doh) and much of the boiler gubbins was behind the fire a great big lump of cast iron that retained heat, so chances are I was only partially right.

I think we had to add the pump for the extra radiators because he could not get sloping pipes to where he wanted the extra rads so the thermo doofah system would no longer work.

I do remember the pilot light and hot water working during the power cuts though which must have gutted the strikers

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Say Nix, I'm just thinking aloud but with that modern plastic push fit 15 mm piping system would could probably design a basic back up CH / HW system that is pumpless and uses a little solar / battery to ignite the burner?? A slightly more advanced system could use solar water heater panels to preheat the water a bit as well??