Forced air gas powered central heating ? avoid ?

[Rhossydd]

Anyone any experience of these, old, systems ?
I've just viewed a 60s house with one of these systems. Huge 'boiler/furnace/heat exchanger' thing in a cupboard that looks like it eats money and had to be repaired a lot. Annoying as otherwise a good house that would suit us (nice double garage for a workshop )
I assume the best option would be to rip it out and install a new wet system from scratch. Not exactly an easy or cheap job if you want to live in the house at the same time.
Walk away ? or try and knock the price down £40k ?

 

[RobinBHM]

My Mother In Law has a warm air system, it’s very effective, the house is always toasty warm and the air out of the vents is very gentle, you don’t feel any air movement in the room like you would with a fan heater.

Her dual fuel cost is around £250 a month which is quite dear but it’s a detached bungalow with a fair area, so maybe not excessive.

Sure it wouldn’t be as efficient as a modern wet system boiler but it’s probably not a massive energy guzzler, the boilers so large because the air vents and heat exchanger are so big because it’s air not water.

If you had a new system, I’d say you could get a system with hot water priority, weather compensation, large rads, mains pressure hot water tank for £15k say, maybe less and make good removing existing. I’m guessing on the price, I had a boiler, hot water priority system and ultra fast recovery hot water cylinder for £4,500 earlier this year, so add on say £3k for rads and pipework then another £2k for pressurised tank etc you are getting on for £10k - £15k

I wouldn’t be concerned about living in the house and having work done at same time, a plumbing firm would knock it out in a few days.

TBH if you can get some money off and you get chance to have a new system, you could get a heating system designed to operate at low flow temps and be super efficient. Have a look at Urban plumbers or heat geeks on YouTube for advice

 

[Rhossydd]

Thanks Robin. Interesting numbers, although comparisons of heating costs have so many variables.
The first house we looked the owner was able to give a month by month breakdown of exact power used over the previous two years, which came as a jaw dropping surprise.

I wouldn’t be concerned about living in the house and having work done at same time, a plumbing firm would knock it out in a few days.

Hmm, I think a first ever installation of a wet system to a house would require a lot of access, not to mention be pretty messy. Fine if it could be done before moving in, but inconvenient for all if we were resident with all our possessions. I could see a 'few days' easily becoming a 'few weeks'.
I might also add there's some asbestos issues that would need to be accommodated whilst removing the old system to add to the time and complexity of the work.

 

[XTiffy]

Many years ago I purchased a comercial premises that had that type of system and removed it due to dry thoats! Looking back I would think it needed better filters as I believe it was distributing fine dust.
For your possible purchase, I would say that installing a new system would increase the re-sale value of the property and that with such an old system you should be able to get government grants.

 

[Stevekane]

Our first proper home was a brand new council house in one of the “expanded” towns and that had a warm air system with a heater made by a company called Halcyon, this was in the early 70s and I would guess your system would be of a similer age. We had the enormous heater in a walk in cupboard, the downstairs vents were just above the skirting whilst upstairs the vents were set into the floor. Generally people didn't like it saying it was expensive but we found it was reliable and not too dear but we treated it like a gaint fan heater switching it on and off when we went out. But my wife felt it created dust,,,I suspect that compared to a modern system it would be very inefficient. Fitting a new combi boiler shouldnt be too disruptive, the services will all be grouped around the old heater and a lot of the old ducting might be best left in situe,,,,,my only final reminisence about it was the flue,,,where was the flu? The heater was located in the middle of the house and I cannot recall there being a flue,,,was it up in the middle of the flat roof,,that might be an issue for the fitting of a new boiler?
Steve.

 

[RobinBHM]

Thanks Robin. Interesting numbers, although comparisons of heating costs have so many variables.
The first house we looked the owner was able to give a month by month breakdown of exact power used over the previous two years, which came as a jaw dropping surprise.

yes of course its impossible to know what the running costs of it are until you use it.

Hmm, I think a first ever installation of a wet system to a house would require a lot of access, not to mention be pretty messy. Fine if it could be done before moving in, but inconvenient for all if we were resident with all our possessions. I could see a 'few days' easily becoming a 'few weeks'.

sure, before moving in is best but if you are redecorating anyway it would still be doable

I assume being a 60s build it has solid screed floors on the ground floor, so the pipe runs will be in the 1st floor with drops to the downstairs rads. (I dont know what number of floors it has)

That would mean all carpets in the 1st floor rooms ie bedrooms + hallway would need to be up.


Of course you might need a new gas pipe as the existing may be too small


So yes quite a bit to be done, it all depends on how much you want the property

I would prefer to have a brand new system as per the above scenario than say buy a house with a wet system that has been in for quite a few years, which might work but needs lots of remedial work.

One thing to watch out for on central heating is if a system has been installed with microbore -they are prone to have balancing problems, blocked pipes etc etc

 

[Jake]

Probably makes it easy to jump to electric air source heating through the existing ducting (and have air con to boot if you want it) - guessing, never looked into it.