Warm Air alternatives

We live in a flat with a Johnson & Starley warm air system that has been disconnected by 'cos the heat exchanger is leaking. Yes, I know it could be repaired but it's 30+ years old and next year it will be something else!

We have had a J&S approved guy call who recommends a new J&S heater - Economaire - it's sealed and doesn't fall foul of the increasingly tough ventilation/air entry standards. Looks OK.

BUT

However, it does seem a bit expensive. J&S won't tell me what their boilers cost so I have no way of checking. He wants =A32400 to replace it, replace aged fortic and put in new controls.

Is this fair?

***************

Are other warm air boilers available, are they any good?

Wendy

Reply to
wendy_grunge
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================================== You wouldn't shop at Tesco without seeing prices so it hardly makes sense to buy spares for an out-moded central heating system from someone who won't give you a breakdown of component costs.

J&S appear to have a virtual monopoly of war air heating in this country which suggest that you might be better off spending your money on a more conventional 'wet' system which you can customise to your own specification.

You might be able to subsidise a replacement system by selling the old warm air ducting;scrap metal prices are quite high at the moment.

Cic.

Reply to
Cicero

My mother-in-law lives up in Carlisle and has just (about 6 months ago) had a new Johnson & Starley warm air boiler fitted. I can't contact her until the weekend but I'll post back then if you like with the price she paid.

John

Reply to
John

Problem with that, as my mother-in-law found when she was considering this very thing, is that she had nowhere to put radiators!

John

Reply to
John

We have had a J&S approved guy call who recommends a new J&S heater - Economaire - it's sealed and doesn't fall foul of the increasingly tough ventilation/air entry standards. Looks OK.

BUT

However, it does seem a bit expensive. J&S won't tell me what their boilers cost so I have no way of checking. He wants £2400 to replace it, replace aged fortic and put in new controls.

Is this fair?

***************

Are other warm air boilers available, are they any good?

Wendy

Reply to
Doctor Drivel

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=================================== What is so very unusual about her property that it has no space available for radiators in one form or another? I doubt if I've ever seen a house / property that had no free wall space.

Cic.

Reply to
Cicero

Reply to
Doctor Drivel

Why put rads in and have an inferior system when there is no need to.

Reply to
Doctor Drivel

---------------------------------- If wet CH with radiators is so inferior to warm air CH why is warm air heating so rarely installed? Wet CH is flexible and easily maintained, whereas warm air heating is difficult to modify, and has a tendency to pump large amounts of dust into the air.

Cic.

Reply to
Cicero

Read what I wrote.

You haven't a clue about forced air, full of old wives tales from cheapo council house estate versions. It is the norm in the USA, as they know how to do it right. Have a look at this. This gives decent background:

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me a two duct forced air, heat recovery & ventilation system any day to any crap rad system. The forced air system is far superior in just about every way.

The modern forced air units by J&S are a world away from the older units too. They will transform a system.

The reason it is not installed is more due to ignorance and lack of skills.

Reply to
Doctor Drivel

The Unico system. Small flexible multi-layered tubes that act like a car exhaust and silence high velocity air. A thermal store can be heated by a boiler, provide DHW and pipe heat to a air-handling unit that distributes it around house. Full heat recovery and ventilation is possible.

The tube is so small it can be retrofitted into existing homes, feeding it under floors and over lofts.

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USA site:
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Reply to
Doctor Drivel

That is a very clear statement that wet heating systems are inferior to warm air systems. The sources you cite in support of your argument are not very convincing. One of those sources states:

"I Cannot Get Ducts To Upstairs. How Do I Get Around This?

Some integrated circulators within the warm-air casing have large enough outputs to incorporate a partial radiator system for the upstairs. Another method is to install two small warm-air units operating independently, supplying ground and first floors."

Unless I've mis-read that it suggests resorting to a conventional wet system for part of the installation to overcome the inherent problems of warm air heating. The same result can be achieved at much lower cost and much less disruption by installing a fully wet system with one or more fanned heaters replacing conventional radiators. Of course one could adopt the other solution suggested in that quote ("two small warm-air units operating independently") but that wouldn't be cost effective in money or space terms.

Another of your sources suggests installing a network of ducting consisting of *80mm* ducting. The cost and inconvenience of installing such a network compared with a single spine of 22mm pipework for a basic wet system is really prohibitive for most people.

I repeat what I said, the small takeup of warm air heating compared with wet systems is due to much more that ignorance and lack of skills. The fact that it's the preferred system in America has no particular relevance to this country where houses generally are smaller and built to different standards.

Cic.

Reply to
Cicero

As clear as day!

Firstly, there are no inherent problems with forced air heating. The problem is putting it an old house - a retro fit. Now Unico is here that is not such a problem as the flex pipes are small and can run in a small duct up the stairwell or wherever.

All Myson heaters are noisy.

That gets rid of the problem of getting ducting from one floor to another. One in the loft and one maybe under the stairs downstairs. But again Unico have solved much of that problem with small tube ducting.

As you seem to be obsessed with water inside pipes, you could have a boiler as the heat source. A air handler with copper heat battery in the loft for upstairs and one downstairs. Just 22mm pipe running to each and no ducting between floors. The air handling units are just big Myson heaters with ducting coming off them.

In money terms it could be very cost effective - it depends on the job in hand.

Again look at the Unico link. You have to understand what forced air gives you. You clearly didn't read the links.

  • Instant heat up
  • even temperatures
  • no cold spots so 100% of rooms used (even around the patio windows).
  • 100% fresh air if you want.
  • Heat recovery
  • humidification if you want
  • comfort cooling in summer
  • The dry systems don't freeze in winter

....and if need be, forced cooling in that as well - with de-humidification.

A properly designed and installed forced air system is far, far superior to rads slapped around the walls. Those who slag forced air in this country tend to be plumbers, who know sweet FA about. They fear it as it would rightly take the heating side away from them. Plumbers are good at drains not heating - they claimed heating is their field as water ran in pipes. It isn't their field. There are different qualifications for each.

It is not. It is because of ignorance - which you have displayed (your view is quite common). And lack of skills. The average "plumber" just hasn't a clue - not his field, they just walk away to the next bathroom change.

Most newer selfbuild houses are now being built to higher insulation specs - they tend to go over building reags, which are quite high now. Most of the older selfbuilt houses had heat recovery and vent systems (MHRV) and UFH heating. The higher insulation means the UFH can be done away with. The ducting then used for full heat, vent and heat recovery. A heat, vent, heat recovery system adds value to a house and is rightly seen as a healthy eco addition - heating, ventilation and cooling all in one.

A house is a house wherever it is, and the discerning Americans prefer forced air. Instead of trying to play the know-it-all and making yourself out to be foolish, best learn more about forced air, heat recovery and vent.

Reply to
Doctor Drivel

Using a boiler and air handlers with copper heater batteries means that by installing bronze pumps all ferrous is taken out of the system. No sludge that plagues rad system then. Rads are sludge collectors and the efficiency drops in time an dten the corrosion, etc.

Reply to
Doctor Drivel

< snipped a great deal of hot air>

================================== Basically you're saying that you know better than about 99% of the British heating / ventilating industry.

Warm air heating has virtually no penetration of the domestic market in this country for the obvious reason that people have decided that it doesn't compare very favourably in overall terms with the tried and tested wet system which is basically simple to install and maintain, cost effective and well-suited to our climate.

Remember that the OP asked for alternatives to warm air heating and pointed out that the J&S representative wouldn't tell her the price of the boiler he wanted to install. Anybody that says, "Trust me, I'm a salesman", is certainly not a person to be trusted to tell the truth about their product. Restricted product information equals fishy deal to me.

A few pictures of your own warm air installation might be informative, but not fully convincing.

Cic.

Reply to
Cicero

Any "heating engineer" will agree with me. Plumbers do not. The proof in the eating. The comfort conditions in forced air, heat recovery and vent are far superior. They are also cheaper to run.

You are like a stuck record

That is total balls. "doesn't compare very favourably" - BS words. Forced air and vent is much superior in comfort conditions - you have been told that, but it doesn't sink in. Forced air is simple maintain, as in most cases it is incorporated all in one box...and no corroding rads every 8 to

10 years.

Then go to another dealer an dget another price. Or go Unico who can put a air hander in there heated via a combi. Best she just gets the latest J&S unit - excellent unit indeed.

Yes pictures convince the hard of thinking. As I said to you. Get to understand how it works and what it offers. Then the differing systems available. Then you will be much better informed and not make a fool of yourself.

Architects deplore discharge and overflow pipes penetrating the side of building. These pipes also extract heat from the building too, screwing up heat losses. They also stain the side of buildings. Since 2001 toilets can be overflowed into bowls, so no problem there with pipes penetrating the outside. Unvented cylinders can be discharged into the drain using a tundish and HepVo trap now. Again no outside wall penetration. But that still leaves the boilers which have flues and discharge pipes - although the Atmos can be discharged into a tundish and HepVo trap.

To avoid all this crap on the outside of walls, with modern insulation levels being so high and flats insulating themselves in a block they install electric heating. Three to fours times as expensive to run, but as it will be rarely on it becomes cost effective to run.

Many are looking at common boiler rooms and local hydraulic interface units (heat distribution boxes so to speak, as used in district heating schemes). In each flat is takes heat from a pipe loop from the common boiler room. These consist of a few plate heat exchangers and controls. One doing DHW for the flat giving instant DHW from the mains and the other feeding a small heat recovery and vent unit with a copper coil inside. Ducting up to the roof provides air intake and exhaust. No rads on walls and cheap to run heating and ventilation too. The heat is charged via an energy meter. So no gas in the flats, only in the boiler room.

Forced air/heating and vent/heat recovery is being installed and is increasing in uptake too.

Reply to
Doctor Drivel

< More snipped>

================================== Yes, pictures do sometimes convince. I assume that you don't have any because you personally are using a conventional wet system despite the fact that you're so adamant that it's inferior.

If "any heating engineer" will agree with you (your unsupported claim) then they're making a very poor job of convincing the vast majority of the population of the superiority of warm air heating. If any product is proved to be so superior to competing products it soon takes a leading market position. People generally live in a real world; they buy products that suit their purpose and life-style rather than something prescribed by self-styled experts. It seems logical that professional installers would long since have embraced such a superior product that produced higher earnings for themselves; there's no strong evidence that that has happened.

Warm air heating has been around for many years and it has never become large scale mainstream for domestic use simply because people don't like it enough.

Cic.

Reply to
Cicero

Oh my God!! unsupported claim. You are either a plumber or just plain thick or both!!!

Know it alls like you will never be convinced. I am responding to you as others will be reading it and may actually believe the likes of you. You didn't even know electrostatic air filters for Gods sake. You haven't aclue.

It has in the massive USA and closing in, in some Continental countries too. Broag make some fine forced air stuff.

That they do. Have you tried coming in.

In domestic heating they buy what a dumb plumber tells them!!! Plumbers still fit cold water tank in lofts, cylinders and noisy expensive power shower pumps, when the house has a fantastic mains supply. Heat banks? Duh! What is Dat guv?

There is around 1.5 million homes using it. Now read what I wrote. Read the links and do some reading about it, and stop making a full prat out of yourself. No doubt you will come back with more drivel and prattish writing. If you want to know, drop the attitude and I will help you.

Reply to
Doctor Drivel

Having had warm-air heating since the house was built, there was never any need to leave free wall space. The settee, for instance is pushed back against (well, actually millimetres from) one wall, bookcases line another wall etc., etc.

Nothing insurmountable if they wanted to do a major re-shuffle of furniture/walls/rooms/space, but they happen to like the layout as it is - and as it is, there's no space to hang rads of sufficient size/heat output in existing gaps. They decided it was far, far preferable in their circumstances to just replace the warm air boiler.

John

Reply to
John

Very wise too.

Reply to
Doctor Drivel

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