Vent Heating System To Central Heating - Cost

mimi1234

Hi all,

I've been house hunting for a very long time. I've come across a 2 bedroomed end terraced house which is up for £140K.

I've had a look and I quite like it. However, the owner said there was no central heating and that they had a vent heating system (heat comes out of a vent). Has anyone heard of this and if we were wanting to have it changed to central heating, would the cost be astronomical? I've tried doing a quick Google, but I did not get any information.

Many thanks.

hohum

Ok no expert but having lived in a flat with only electricty supply...What's the vent heating powered by? Is there any gas coming in to the property?

My suspicion is you'd need to block off/remove the vent system, and install a new central heating system. That would be cost of a boiler (£5k?) plus installation, plus piping and radiators. PLUS if there is no gas coming into the property you'd need to get that in, no guarantees that you could and that's expensive. You can do electric central heating but my understanding is electric has to be storage heaters - I'd almost prefer the vent heating!

vectistim

What does the EPC tell you about the heating? I would _guess_ it's probably a Johnson and Starley gas fired warm air system, personally I really like them (no I don't work for them - my parents have one)

silvercar

I suspect the owners meant there were no radiators rather than no central heating system.

Some people really like them as they do heat an area quickly, downsides are they can make the room quite dry, also you can get hot and cold spots in a room and are restricted in furniture layout as you can't block the vents. Also not sure how efficient they are.

If you did want to remove them, you have to consider what you do with the vents; you can't just block them up and leave empty hollow spaces or you risk damp if unventilated, you don't want to leave the spaces open as one of the reasons to remove is that you want the space to utilise. So you would probably need to fill them in if under the floor.

mimi1234

Thanks for the advice guys.

As it happens, there is a boiler there which is powered by gas.

So would that mean radiators/pipes would have to be installed. Again, sorry to be thick, but does anyone know roughly how much that would cost? I'm a first time buyer and I have no idea about such costs etc.

Thanks again for your kind help.

macman

If it's gas powered the cost should be reasonable, since gas is about a third of the cost of single rate electricity. Ask the vendor what the running costs are, no reasonable seller will object to showing you the gas bills. And ask what the condition is and when it was last serviced.
PS it is a central heating system, a warm air one.
You might need rads, pipework and controls, or you might need a new boiler, impossible to say without an inspection-your RGI can advise.
A new mains gas boiler starts at about £1K plus install costs.