Warm-Air central heating.

benhill

Hi there guys and gals,

I've just searched the forums and found nothing relevant so here I go!

My partner and I are in the very late stages of purchasing a house. This house has gas warm-air central heating. Now, I know I'm only a young-un (of 21), but I had never heard of it before now, having first lived in a house with no central heating and now in a flat with radiators (maybe it was that backward upbringing in Cornwall... )

My question to all of you astute and vastly more knowledgeable MoneySavers (end of suck up... now), is this: is gas warm-air central heating an efficient way of heating up a house (3-bed semi, if any of you need to know to calculate)? Ignore the costs of replacing the whole system, I only want to know (really) whether room-controlled radiators would be better (or, indeed, any other system) as the system is quite old and may have to be replaced (to qualify in our insurance policy, and for peace of mind) anyway.

The current owners of the property say that it is very efficient, but I have my cynical hat on when I say that we haven't got a completion date yet, so things could fall through yet.

BexTech

We have found it to be quite efficient, certainly more efficient than radiators, and definitely more so than storage heaters, it also warms up the home within minutes.

markdavey

Hi benhill,

My wife and I purchased a house with Warm Air heating about 3 years ago (I had previously lived with my mum who also had Warm Air heating). Whilst NEW warm air units are very efficient, the majority of houses that have warm air still have their original Warm Air unit (ours was circa 20 years old) and they are not.

Although Bextech is right in that heat is generated immediately, it is also stopped as soon as the thermostat turns the unit off, radiators will keep warm much longer.

Our unit was not functioning properly and was constantly pumping out warm air (it would not close the valve). We did some research and found that it would be more cost efficient to rip out the warm air heating and install rads and a conventional boiler than get the warm air unit replaced/fixed in the long term. By doing this we also gained a 3ft x 3ft space in our bedroom which was where the warm air ducts were and the same in our dining room. The whole job cost us £3,500, same size house as yours.

We found that the warm air system we had dried out the air and caused us to wake in the morning's with sore throats (however this may be simply due to the age of the unit).

Before we installed the radiators, I had to have the warm air on for 3 hours before the house hit the temperature set on the thermostat. It is now only on for 2, that MUST be saving me money!

If the unit is working and is serviced regularly it should be OK (my mum still has hers). We just didn't like it!

In the area where we bought our house, people prefer radiators to Warm air so should also increase its saleable appeal when we come to move on.

Hope that helps. Congratulations on the house purchase!