For our British friends, What are the following? Combi boiler, hob, council housing/estate?

Question

I see questions about these all of the time and wondered what they are or mean? Thanks for enlightening me.

Answer 1

combi boiler- a high efficiency boiler for hot water and central heating

hob - the heated circles on top of the cooker that you put pots on to cook things in

council estate - blocks of houses owned by the council that are very cheap

Answer 2

A combi boiler is one that heats your central heating system and your domestic hot water system.  (your radiators and your bath taps).

A hob is the hotplate on your cooker

(both these terms are more commonly used with gas appliances than electric)

Council housing /  Council estates - following the housing shortages of the 1950's and 1960's,  it was policy for the local councils to become landlords on a large scale.  There were a lot of 'social housing' projects put up around the towns in the UK.  Typically these are low rent, and are affordable for those receiving welfare.   They tend to have a bad name due to shoddy construction,  social problems associated with unemployment, few nearby facilities etc.   In the 1980's attempts were made to combat this by selling off the properties at a low cost to those who had been living in these homes for a long time, and this had good results in many places.   In others, this would have been a bad buy.

Answer 3

Me, too.  But I guess I've seen enough context to figure them out.  In the US, we'd probably call council housing, "the projects."