Gas Warm Air Central Heating

arkwright01

I'm looking at buying a house and it has a warm air heating system that also supplies hot water. I'm not sure how these work and wonder if you get a version of these that supply instant hot water (like a combi boiler).

I'd like to get rid if the hot water storage tank and wonder if this is possible.

Apologies for my lack of knowledge on this subject!

yangptangkipperbang

Firstly, don't believe all the "scare" stories you hear about warm air heating - always from people who don't actually have it. It is great !

Your unit is probably made by Johnson and Starley, give them a ring, they are most helpful.
If you just "want" to get rid of your hot water tank and don't have some other reason - existing tank leaking, etc, then the costs of doing that would be prohibitive - you certainly wouldn't recover your costs.

McKneff

We love ours, instant heat, our old one died about 10 years ago, didnt even consider anything else.

Cosy too.

arkwright01

I don't want to get rid of the system, just the water tank! I'll give Johnson & Starley a ring.

markdavey

On the flip side, we had warm air, lived with it for 3 years and had it replaced by radiators with a combi. It may be instant heat but that heat also instantly stops once the thermostat switches the boiler off whereas the radiators retain the heat once the boiler is switched off by the thermostat.

fwor

markdavey wrote: »

It may be instant heat but that heat also instantly stops once the thermostat switches the boiler off

Having lived in a house with warm air heating for years, I should point out that this is largely due to the use of old-style electromechanical thermostats which have a large amount of hysteresis.

I replaced mine with a completely electronic thermostat and this made a big difference.

yangptangkipperbang

markdavey wrote: »

On the flip side, we had warm air, lived with it for 3 years and had it replaced by radiators with a combi. It may be instant heat but that heat also instantly stops once the thermostat switches the boiler off whereas the radiators retain the heat once the boiler is switched off by the thermostat.

Yes, what you gain at one end of the cycle you lose at the other end so that point is irrelevant. With a wet system you set it come on 30-45 mins before, with a warm air system 5-10 mins.

How did you cope with all the wall space you lost to the radiators ? My neighbours had an awful job fitting their furniture in after they had radiators installed.

fwor wrote: »

Having lived in a house with warm air heating for years, I should point out that this is largely due to the use of old-style electromechanical thermostats which have a large amount of hysteresis.

I replaced mine with a completely electronic thermostat and this made a big difference.

Interesting ! on many warm air systems the thermostat cannot be replaced with a "conventional" type as it not only controls the temperature but also the fan speed. I investigated this on my system to try and install a modern thermostat/programmer. In the end I managed to replace the analogue programmer on the heating unit with a modern electronic one instead. Quite a simple job.