Warm air heating,installing GCH

Kazzam1984

Hello does anyone know about warm air heating?

We are looking at putting an offer in on the followig property . It was built in 79/80.  Its right at the top of our budget , marginally over budget.

long story short we were at the point of selling our flat and exchanging contracts on another property but our sellers pulled out on exchange contract day so we have z load of solicitors fees to pay bit no house and we still have our buyers  . So the house we are going go see is the only one in our budget so would have no money for improvements straight away.

My question is. How much would it cost to take out the warm air heating and replace with gas central heating?  There is a gas oven in the kitchen, so I assume its connected to mains.  

Also how much disruption does this cause would floors have to come up and pipes laid . If so who puts the floors back down?

We wouldn't be able to do anything for a year at least and would have to live in it as it is. However it gets us in the location we want to apply for schools for my 3 year old and it means we could miss a move later on. 


I found this property on the Rightmove Android app and wanted you to see it: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property/72567258



Many thanks 

ciderboy2009

Is there a problem with the warm air central heating?  They're normally fairly good at keeping the house warm.

A friend looked into replacing their warm air system but ended up replacing the warm air boiler instead due to the cost and disruption of installing a wet system.  There wasn't much of a choice of new boilers but they are still available.

Another_Level

Warm air heating units are still available ! but you have to consider what heats the hot water aswell. 

Tbh, fitting a combination gas boiler and radiators is a sensible upgrade. It will have many advantages over the warm air unit and what ever heats the hot water.

Taking out the warm air unit is fairly straight forward ( some contain asbestos seals etc) still an easy job for a competent installer.

The ducts that convey the warm air to the room grilles can just be left where they are and the grilles removed and plasterboarded over.

Pipe routes can be discussed more on site but most can go under the first floor assuming its some type of board and if the ground floor is solid, for minimal disruption consider having pipes neatly dropped down the ground floor walls to the radiator position.

Digging out channels for pipes in walls & solid floors is possible but adds expense.

Cost wise again only a site visit will be accurate but for a radiator in each room, a decent gas combination boiler all the piping, remove the warm air unit with associated tanks and adapting as required.  Around £4k 

Can be done cheaper for a not so decent gas combination boiler 
Really you will need to get some quotes and the incoming mains water pressure/flow checked to ensure a gas combination boiler is suitable.

Its a straight forward job 

FreeBear

Another_Level said: The ducts that convey the warm air to the room grilles can just be left where they are and the grilles removed and plasterboarded over.

Alternatively, the ducts could be repurposed and used with a mechanical heat recovery ventilation system (or a PIV).

Another_Level

But others will have other ideas   

koalakoala

Wow you couldn't that for £4k where I live

Ganga

We had a house with warm air heating when we were first married in 1972 ,heated the house up quickly ,the hot water was generated by an immersion heater that ran on economy 7,was not expensive to run ,only fault was there was not vents in every bedroom and as it was a council house could do nothing about it .
Why not live with it till you have saved up some money to change to radiators and a boiler if they are still available/ allowed.

st999

I had gas warm air heating for 25 years then due to BG making me put in more ventilation and therefor causing an almighty draught in my kitchen and increasing the maintenance to over £250 a year I put in a combi and radiators.
Cost about £6000 but I'm saving £250 a year plus whatever it would cost now on maintenance and using about 25% less gas and my kitchen doesn't drop to 12 deg C during the night in the middle of winter when the heating was off and I don't need to keep the kitchen door shut all the time..

danrv

I bet nobody has electric warm air. 
Works well but am desperate to update it due to Economy 10 cost. Curious about FB’s suggestion of repurposing ducting for PIV.
Looking at central aircon retrofit at the moment.

parcival

My mother had warm air (electric) in her 2 bed flat.  Warmed the place up very quickly and the Economy 7 costs were reasonable.  She did have a replacement unit - Dimplex I think which she was told had a 10 year life.

danrv

parcival said:

My mother had warm air (electric) in her 2 bed flat.  Warmed the place up very quickly and the Economy 7 costs were reasonable.  She did have a replacement unit - Dimplex I think which she was told had a 10 year life.

Must’ve been sometime ago as the storage heaters are no longer made.