"Mike Clarke" wrote in message
...
In article , Ronald
wrote:

Hi My house has warm air central heating using gas and my gas bill is
about
£350 a year. I also use gas for cooking and hot water and have a power
shower connected to the hot water tank. Has anyone ever done a comparison
on
costs, or replaced their warm air central heating with radiators and is
there, as I have been told, a significant cost saving of gas, if
replacing
the warm central heating with radiators?

You're unlikely so save much on your gas bills. Stick with the system
you have so long as it works and you're happy with it. Even if you could
reduce your gas bills to zero it could take about 10 years to recover
the cost of installing a new system.

If I got a new heating system etc would I still be able to use my power
shower or will that have to be changed also?

No reason why not, providing the correct type of system is installed.

The heating was installed when the house was built in 1991 and I have
lived
in it since new. I ask because I just had it serviced by Scottish Gas and
the engineer said it is getting near the end of it's life and did I want
Scottish Gas to give me a quote for a replacement system using radiators.

Sounds like marketing bulls**t. Our warm air system lasted 35 years
before having to be replaced due to the flue disintegrating. We were
quite happy with it while it lasted but eventually had to replace it
with a new system because the old flue followed a torturous route
through the house which would have failed to satisfy current safety regs
if re-used by a new flue. Re-routing bulky warm air ducting to
accommodate a relocated replacement warm air unit would have been
impracticable so we went for a radiator system.

If I did decide to replace it, it would not be with Scottish Gas.

If they're anything like British Gas that's probably a wise choice.

Thinking about the cost of a service contract anyway I have paid Scottish
Gas about £100 a year since 1993 and if I had radiators, if something
went
wrong with the plumbing I could easilly get that fixed (relative a
plumber)
and just pay an engineer if there was something wrong with the gas so
would
not need a service contract, another saving.

Well with warm air there's very little that can go wrong with the
ducting (which is probably not covered in the contract anyway) so the
only potentially expensive repairs would be to the warm air unit. So the
situation isn't much different.

I paid BG similar amounts for a maintenance contract for many years only
to be told "Sorry mate, we only cover the 'primary flue' - that bit of
the flue isn't covered".

With hindsight I'd have been much better off without the maintenance
contract.

Many warm air units have long flexible fan flues, that take air from outside
only, not from inside the house. They can also have electrostatic air
filters on them - well worth getting. Also you can have a ventilation aspect
incorporated, although maybe with some ducting changes in the loft or
wherever. They also circulate air in summer to keep the place cool.
Humidification can be incorporated as well. Keep the warm air ducting and
no rads on walls. New registers can be fitted if you want nice shiny chrome
versions. Do your research if replacing as the likes of Scottish gas will
only replace the nearest type for type and will not install one say with a
more flexible room sealed flue. They don't have that much experience of
system design at all, just maintenetance and replacing type of type. See
Johnson & Starley.




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