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Hans51 Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

'have the heating / the boiler on'

My teacher said that 'have the heating on' is okay, but 'have the boiler on' is wrong because native English speakers do not say 'a boiler' as we call a machine that boils water and make a building warm. Do you agree with that?

A: Didn't you have the heating on?
B: I fell asleep without turning it on.

Thank you so much in advance.
  

Top answer

Hans51 but 'have the boiler on' is wrong because native English speakers do not say 'a boiler' as we call a machine that boils water and make a building warm. I do sometimes, 'heating' is more generally known, I suppose. Or 'have the furnace on' sometimes.

— Mister Micawber

  • Hans51 but 'have the boiler on' is wrong because native English speakers do not say 'a boiler' as we call a machine that boils water and make a building warm.
  • I do sometimes, 'heating' is more generally known, I suppose.
  • Or 'have the furnace on' sometimes.
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5 Answers
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Hans51but 'have the boiler on' is wrong because native English speakers do not say 'a boiler' as we call a machine that boils water and make a building warm.
I do sometimes, 'heating' is more generally known, I suppose. Or 'have the furnace on' sometimes.
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The boiler is only a part of a heating system. My grandparents had a coal-fired boiler in their house built in the early 1900s. They had coal delivered through a coal chute that led to a coal bin in the basement. When cold weather came, they "stoked" the boiler and turned on the heat. There may be systems like this still around, especially out in the country where there are no utilities. Most use
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AlpheccaStarsThe boiler is only a part of a heating system. They "stoked" the boiler and turned on the heat.
Thank you so much. I have learned that 'turn on the air conditioner' or 'turn on the air conditioning' are okay to use and they are interchangeable for the same or similar meaning, so I thought 'turn on the boiler' and 'turn on
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AlpheccaStarsThe boiler is only a part of a heating system. My grandparents had a coal-fired boiler in their house built in the early 1900s. They had coal delivered through a coal chute that led to a coal bin in the basement. When cold weather came, they "stoked" the boiler and turned on the heat. There may be systems like this still around, especially out in the country
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I don't see anything grammatically wrong with "we have the boiler on." But the boiler is just one component of the heating system. A thermostat automatically fires the boiler (and controls the other parts of the system) if the heating system is on. The boiler is not something that you control by turning it off and on.

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