Warm air heating in a house- views?

Elinore

We had one in the flat. It was horrible, but it wasn't an on demand system. It was more like a huge storage heater system. There was a solid 'core' that the elements super heated and the air moved around it, warmed up then out through the vents.

So it would take days to heat the core, by which time any cold snap had passed. It cost a blinking fortune to leave running 'just in case' and it would leak hot air making the flat unbearably warm and dusty dry when you didn't need it and totally freezing when you did. In the end I lived without heating for a number of years.

ERICS_MUM

My house was built in 1969 and has warm air heating. I love it for the reasons stated by other posters on this thread. In the 22 years I've lived here the boiler and parts have been serviced annually under one of the BG contracts and bits and bobs replaced, one new thermostat etc. One of the flues has slightly collapsed I think, reducing the heat in the bathroom but I've had an electric heated towel rail fitted which is enough of a boost.

An additional benefit is the cat likes to stretch out in front of a vent and get nice warm air blowing across his tummy !

I don't have room for radiators, would have to throw out loads of bookcases.

jsinc

Have warm air in a 80s house (J&S). The only costs over 12 years have been safety/service checks and replacing the timer. Wouldn't consider changing to a wet system unless it failed, and then would likely replace with new warm air unit to avoid loss of space to radiators.

Upsides:
Heats house very quickly.
No radiators or pipes limiting furniture space.
Relatively efficient (grant schemes haven't included warm air units because they're not inefficient enough; potentially changing the system made little difference to my C rated energy efficiency rating).
No ~£5k+ replacement cost.

Downsides:
House cools more quickly.
No radiator in bathroom, although apparently water heater can heat one towel rail.
Hot water isn't on a timer, although this may be system dependent and probably doable.
Open flue so you need ventilation in room where it's situated, although likely already has it.
Two pilots, but simple enough to turn off heating pilot over summer.
There is some noise when it 'fires up' but that's mostly remedied by thermostat level.

r2015

I replaced my warm air heating with a combi and radiators 18 months ago and have used 22% less gas in the past year,


13800 kWh, previously 18000 kWh a year.


In summer when the heating was off I was using 18 kWh a day for hot water and cooking, now I am using 11 kWh a day, a saving of over 38% in gas during the months when I don't use heating.


And it is a lot quieter and less draughty as it doesn't need ventilation in the kitchen.

westv

r2015 wrote: »

I replaced my warm air heating with a combi and radiators 18 months ago and have used 22% less gas in the past year,


13800 kWh, previously 18000 kWh a year.


In summer when the heating was off I was using 18 kWh a day for hot water and cooking, now I am using 11 kWh a day, a saving of over 38% in gas during the months when I don't use heating.


And it is a lot quieter and less draughty as it doesn't need ventilation in the kitchen.

How much to install?

r2015

how much to install?

> £6000 <£7000 .

teddysmum

My gran was given a new build council bungalow in the early 1970s and the warm air system in that was horrible.


The air was dry and dusty and her eyes were always runny (she was blind) because of this.


She had a main room, back to back with a bedroom, with the kitchen and heat unit between and the two main rooms were not evenly heated. She was always to be found with a chair drawn up, sitting by the living room's vent, as it was too cold sitting on the sofa.


With a radiator, leaving a space, you can place furniture in front, but the vented part of her walls was wasted space, as the vents needed to be clear to allow air circulation.