Central heating did not develop until well after the US and Britain split. There was little technology transfer, so it's not too suprising that the terminology is different. When I moved to Britain in the late 60's, central heating was still rare enough that it was noted in real estate listings. The Brits and other Europeans developed some rather odd devices to retrofit older houses.... 1. The Geyser (alt pro: geezer). A box attached to the wall in or near a shower, which provided instant hot water. Some were gas powered (in which case a balanced flue was fitted through a hole in the wall to the outside). Some were electric. Having several hundred watts of electricity in intimate contact with the water and metal piping of the shower was rather nervous making (saw many still in use in Scotland this summer). 2. The 'storage heater'. The CEGB (central electricity generating board) rates were far lower at night than during the day or evening. A storage heater was a metal box, typically 4' wide, 2.5 ft high, and about a foot deep, filled with electric elements and firebrick. During the night, the bricks would be heated electrically. By morning the box was a serious burn hazard, and radiating heat for the rest of the day as it slowly cooled. At my boarding school, we used to toss matches on the top of one and make bets as to which would be the first to light. Peter Trei