Replacing Warm Air Central Heating.

Lard74

Hi all,
First time poster here at MSE, be gentle, my late Wife was a massive fan of MSE
I'm soon to be the owner of a small four bedroom house on the south coast (about 200m from the sea). 
However, in order to get this place (because of the location) the house has a warm air central heating system.

So I am looking to get solar panels and battery storage, the house is north/south facing so it would a good idea - there is a very good solar panel company here who I will get in to give me a quote. Plus sort out any insulation issues in the roof.

The next thing to thing about is what to replace the Warm Air with? 
1. I've got a good budget so could afford a conventional Central heating system and combi boiler.
2. A Warm Air pump isn't really applicable (noise, not certain about it)
3. Electric Radiators and an electric Combi boiler (its just me and occasional visitors) and use an app to heat specific rooms at specific times of the day.

I haven't moved in or spent any money - I'm looking for options and Ideas.

Thanks!

macman

What sort of warm air system is it? What fuel is powering it? If it's mains gas, that's still by far the cheapest option. 
Please forget an electric boiler, it's the most expensive way ever devised of heating and hot watering a property: approximately 350% more expensive than gas CH.
The second cheapest option to run would be NSH's and an immersion heater running on E7., but little point in going down this route if you already have mains gas.
If you want to fit solar PV, then I'd suggest a conventional boiler and hot tank, not a combi.  That way, you can fit an iBoost to send the surplus generation first to the hot tank, and then to the batteries.

LV_426

Aren't conventional boilers going out of fashion? Apparently we're all meant to install air or ground source heat pumps.

macman

There are no restrictions due until 2030, and even then they will only apply to new builds. RGI's will be installing gas boilers for decades to come, though they might not be running on natural gas.

LV_426

macman said:

There are no restrictions due until 2030, and even then they will only apply to new builds. RGI's will be installing gas boilers for decades to come, though they might not be running on natural gas.

Gas? There'll be none of that available as Russia will be hoarding it all
Besides, what happened to Hydrogen as a fuel?

Bendy_House

Lard74 said:

Hi all,
First time poster here at MSE, be gentle, my late Wife was a massive fan of MSE
I'm soon to be the owner of a small four bedroom house on the south coast (about 200m from the sea). 
However, in order to get this place (because of the location) the house has a warm air central heating system.

So I am looking to get solar panels and battery storage, the house is north/south facing so it would a good idea - there is a very good solar panel company here who I will get in to give me a quote. Plus sort out any insulation issues in the roof.

The next thing to thing about is what to replace the Warm Air with? 
1. I've got a good budget so could afford a conventional Central heating system and combi boiler.
2. A Warm Air pump isn't really applicable (noise, not certain about it)
3. Electric Radiators and an electric Combi boiler (its just me and occasional visitors) and use an app to heat specific rooms at specific times of the day.

I haven't moved in or spent any money - I'm looking for options and Ideas.

Thanks!

Hi Lard.

If you have natural gas, then sticking with it is almost certainly your best bet. This should hopefully transition slowly to H2, but don't worry about that.

And, if you don't need to replace the current WA system, then the most MSE way would be to keep what you have until it actually makes financial sense to change it. Ie - if it wears out, or becomes just too costly to run - and you can find a cheaper alternative. Because, swapping it now for a different will cost you, ooh, £5, 6 7+k?

If you don't have 'mains' but LPG, then that's a different matter, with it being a LOT more costly. However, the same applies - any change will cost you MANY £ks, so likely many, many years to recoup the outlay.

However, if you have to replace it, then you have a few options. And, since it's just for you and the odd visitor (you can take that any way you wish), then there's even more options, including doing now't. You could, for example, buy a few oil-filled radiators at £20 each, and use them in the only rooms required. Yes, leccy is costly, but you'll only use what is actually required, AND you'll have saved multiple £ks in the process, enough to cover the 'extra' energy bill for many years.

Or, if you are seriously considering PV, then a good-sized system with at least 2 batteries could well supply the bulk of your needs. You'd still need to install wet rads in the rooms (possibly UFH downstairs?), so there's that cost too, or, you could simply use it to charge up a few storage rads or a Thermal Store, and/or use the batteries to run your oil-rads as before.

A few years back we looked at a renovated house out in the sticks (no 'mains' energy) that had gone the PV-and-battery way, and this ran UFH via an electric 'combi' boiler. It was tied to 'Smart' Electricity (the energy supplier), and this included a deal where they could 'pinch' any surplus battery power at peak times - for which they'd pay you - and recharge them at cheap rate times. I never did manage to nail down the actual running cost, but my best investigation suggestion it would work out similar to oil. And, of course, a far 'nicer' system.

There is a dedicated 'energy' thread on this forum, so perhaps run a few ideas past them there? Eg, how 'big' a PV and battery system would you need to run, say, half a 4-bed house?!

macman

Just out of idle curiosity, is it possible to convert a warm air system to wet CH, i.e by installing rads and connecting to the WA boiler, or is it totally different? Is gas warm air powered by heating hot water in the boiler and then transferring through a heat exchanger and fan system?
I have never actually encountered one of these systems in the UK.

Bendy_House

I'd have thought, extremely unlikely. AfaIk, there is no watery interface.

Certainly the case when I last saw a hot-air system, but it was nearly 40 years ago. 

Apodemus

Are warm air systems really so bad?  North America seems to manage quite well with them. 

Lard74

Hi all,
Thanks for the responses, its all good food for thought.
I'm downsized property so I have a good budget of about £30k available for PVs and Central heating. (I have some savings for the rest of the house renovations).

I think I do need to replace the Warm Air - its original to 1978 so, even though its working, it probably needs a change over. I'm also thinking of future re-sale for the property. I also suspect that I will have to live with it for over the winter since its quite close now.

The warm air is heated by gas at the moment.

So options are - get rid of Warm Air and get a conventional gas powered system.

The combination of Electric radiators and Solar is not a great idea, it seems.

Thanks

Bendy_House

You haven't told us if it's mains gas or LPG - there is a financial world of difference