What should I do with the warm air system in my new home?

winmau

Hi,

Please help! I have recently had an offer accepted on a new home. We are very happy with the house but I have a major concern over the heating system. I understand that it is a warm air system as there are vents in the rooms and a small narrow boiler tucked away in the kitchen. I did not get the name of the boiler but it looks rather dated (60's/70's??) and is beige in colour.

There is also a large water tank upstairs which idealy I would like to get rid of as it takes up a fair bit of space.

Cash is going to be pretty tight for us in the new home so I fear that I am going to be faced with the choice of either sticking with the warm air heating system OR blocking up the vents, removing the boiler and getting a new combi and rads fitted (probably about 8 rads).

I am not adverse to sticking with the warm air system but obviously there are a few major factors...

1. Would it be cheaper to upgrade the system that is already in the house? - possibly with a unit that can actually heat hot water as well so that I could get rid of the boiler.
2. Or would it be cheaper to get the Combi boiler and rads fitted?
3. Also, which of the two is more econimical?

If anyone out there has any advise or has been in a similar situation please let me know.

I live in south wales so if anyone could advise where I could get a quote for the warm air that would be really helpfull. I know of quite a few plumbers who are able to fit combis but have no experience with warm air :-/

Kind Regards and Merry Xmas 2011 :xmastree:

retiredalso

I have a warm air system and I love it.

Almost instant heat.

My wife wanted to get it removed but after putting boxes where radiators would go she realised that there would be a lot less room for the furniture.

You would not save on gas what you spend on replacing it, some of my neighbours replaced theirs with a combi and radiators and are still using the same amount of gas. In fact one neighbour rues the day he took it out and would put it back in a flash but of course he can't because of the cost.

Think about it, why heat water to heat the air to heat the house when you can just heat the air.

It will most likely be Johnston and Starley, have a look here.

http://www.johnsonandstarley.co.uk/

At least give it a try and see how you get on with it.

C_Mababejive

Dont discount your warm air system just because its a few years old.

Can you post the make and model?

Presumably the hot water is provided via a circulator built into the right hand side of the warm air unit?

A wonderful piece of kit..!

Does the householder have it maintained..?

As i say,make and model would be of interest..

Old doesnt necessarily mean carp..

torbrex

I have a warm air system and would not part with it, instant heat and none of this advanced timing required with radiators where you have to wait on them heating up before they start to heat the rooms.

Mine has a 'Janus' water heater attached which heats the water as it passes through back up to the storage tank, it has the drawback of quite a lot of cold water coming through at first though.

HappyMJ

My mother's house has warm air central heating and a water cylinder heated by a boiler. I loved it nice warm air very quickly. There is no need to use a timer. You get up in the morning turn the thermostat up and within a few minutes the place is warming up. The closer you are to a vent the warmer you'll be for a little while until the room is warm. The cats loved it. Easy to dry clothes. You might like combi's as they are familiar to you but do consider other forms of heating and hot water. The cost of the bill will be almost exactly the same so think carefully before potentially spending thousands on a new central heating system.

Bettie

I have the warm air but a multi point for instant hot water so no tank to heat up. I wouldn't part with either so when the old heating system packed in after about 25 years I had the same installed but a newer model. I've also changed the vents to nicer brass looking ones.
The flue was asbestos lined so it cost extra to remove all that safely but a firm in Bristol arranged all that with a London firm and then the Bristol ones did the install. Two problems though -I have one spare bedroom with no vent and that does get cold but a small convector when I have guests warms the room in no time. No vent in the bathroom either so that can be a cold place but I always leave the door open and it warms up then after, I open the window wide to let out steam and close the door so the rest of the house keeps warm.

Swipe

Money can't be that tight if you are considering replacing a perfectly good central heating system which appears to have served the previous owners fine since the 1970s

Richie-from-the-Boro

winmau, most people, as evidenced above would not change it .. .. its an excellent efficiency / cost ratio for central heating. Your starting point of many many £housands :

- repairing a broken system is expensive
- replacing a broken system is even more expensive
- but your system is not broken, and its one of the more efficient

Most housing of this type I know have an external wall mounted 'trickle' heater in the bedrooms and a~n~other heating application in the bathroom. What in the particular don't you like about your current system ?

winmau

Thank you for many of the helpful replies. We have only viewed the house on 2 occasions so I am not aware of the actual make and model of the unit - feel a bit silly now that I did not look into the system a little more now before the second viewing 2 days ago.

The boiler is downstairs in the kitchen and there is a large insulated water tank virtually directly above it.

The house has not been lived in for over 2 years and it definately needs updating as much of the decor is still 70's (the previous owners had lived there for 32 years). First stop is the bathroom which is why I had concerns about the hot water as the first thing my wife said was that she would like to get rid of the water tank as the extra space would come in handy.

Until now, I was not even aware of the warm air system and and basically thought all houses these days went for combi boilers. I also have no idea if the system has been serviced or if it has aspestos (which would be worrying) so I guess my first task is to find an engineer to look at the system to find out if it is still in good working order. If not, after reading some of the replies on here I would definately consider keeping the system and getting an upgrade if needed.


I have looked at the Johnson and Starley website but it does not give any idea of cost (I have mailed them) etc. I would be comfortable keeping the warm air system but ideally would like to remove the water tank as well so I guess that would mean either a 'janus' or multi point like Betties?

Basically, I have nothing against having this type of system in my house (apart from the water tank on the landing) but am trying to find out a little bit of info on it, how I can get it checked out? and roughly how much it would cost the system needs an upgrade?

Kind Regards

Bettie

Johnson & Starley can give you the name of their local engineer/rep. or talk to them direct and they can help. Just tried to find the old bill for mine as I can't remember the cost ( too much festive spirit maybe) It was either just under two thousand or just under three thousand lol That included the asbestos removal, a new flue + new heating system but not the water heater.

Richie-from-the-Boro

Your wife may be gaining an airing cupboard, but replacing it with wet heating will lose you:

- more than 6 grand
- a higher heating bill
- an amazing amount of furniture space lost, greater than the amount saved from the tank re/move
- comparatively higher repeated maintenance & replacement costs for the modern system

Just de-couple the tank and move it elsewhere, my brother had / still has the same system, two years ago we went through the top landing ceiling and into the attic and built a 'super insulated' little cabin for the cylinder in the roof space. Pipework was minimal, and on an if~it~ain't~broke don't fix it basis we re-used the existing tank