Warm air heating with water - some advice

juicybiscuit

Hi there.

Moving into a 60s block of flats with warm air heating. There's an old(ish) Johnson and Starley unit there at present. I believe the water in the flat uses and immersion system (hence the current owners using an electric shower).

I'd like to update the heating with a newer unit that also does hot water. From what I can tell, the hot water units in the J&S Economaire 25 aren't like a combi boiler, in that they don't provide water 'on demand' - is that the case?

In which case would I need a hot water cylinder as well? I'm so used to combi boilers and have never had a water tank - would an Economaire 25 with hot water (and tank) be relatively efficient?

I don't want to install a combi just for water (and price) - I think that's out of the question anyhow due to it needing it's own flue.

Any ideas?

Looking at the Economaire 25 with water it looks to be around 2k - so is it unrealistic to factor everything costing £3k or under?

Thanks

ollski

It depends on your cylinder, if it is an indirect or primatic you just run 22mm pipes to and from the cylinder to the water heater attatched to the warm air unit and use it on a timer. If you can't get a rise on all the pipework to the cylinder it can also be pumped.

juicybiscuit

No other opinions on this? Would be great to get some more feedback

retiredin2011

It depends on what you want.

I have warm air heating and the water is heated by a separate boiler in the unit, it heats the water for a hot water tank.

I have no idea if you can get a combi boiler for it, after all if it is not heating water for radiators it would be more of an instant water heater.

J&S are still in business, you could give them a call.

juicybiscuit

Yeah a combi is out of the question.

Just not sure how a built in water heater within a warm air unit operates and if it is efficient.

Also a bit stuck on what sort of flue the flat would have. It's on the 4th floor and the flue goes straight out to the side I believe. Would that mean it could only be a room sealed unit? I don't like the sound of open flues and from what I can tell they're only the type that go straight up to a roof etc.

Any people on here with a J&S system that does water? All good?

retiredin2011

Any people on here with a J&S system that does water? All good?

As I posted, I have.

And it only has one flue/chimney.

The only bad bit about it is that it has a pilot light that consumes 3 kWh of gas a day.

In the summer when the heating is off I use about 18 kWh of gas a day and that is for the hot water for a power shower, pilot light and gas oven.

There are only 2 of us in the house though

ollski

The water heater is a totally seperate unit which uses the same (open) flue. Most j&s units have a space on the right hand side behind the clip on cover where its fitted. Give us the model we can tell you if it's theoretically possible to retrofit. The other type of system we have around here is a seperate warm air unit and multipoint water heater.