Hot air heating !

[ItsYonliMe]

We're considering a house but the heating is hot air coming from vents in the floor. Has anyone got experience of this?

[SavoyCabbage]

Yes, we've got it. I live in Australia. I don't like the noise and I don't like the feel either. We can't have ours on once the dc have gone to bed as its too blowy in their rooms.

[cjel]

We had this years ago, loved being able to use all the walls with no radiators, great for standing clother airer over,found cost etc the same, it heats up quickly but also cools down quickly too.didn't have any probs with it except the boiler was very old and we put in different system when it packed up because we were told 'people' don't like it!! never found out who 'people were!!

[SquinkiesRule]

It's awful. we have it in the US, we are in a much warmer climate and it very inefficient. Only plus, is being able to clothes airer near and dry clothes quickly.
Luckily we have a wood burner that gives us most of our heat.

[echt]

The only benefits are more wall space and a toasty laundry for drying clothes.
Noisy, too. It's been cool enough to use on occasions lately, and I'm always sad to say goodbye to the lovely quiet of the summer.

I would imagine it's no joke for asthmatics, either. I wonder if this is the reason Australia has such a high proportion of asthma sufferers.

[MooseBeTimeForSpring]

It's standard here in Canada. We have our ducts hoovered out once a year to keep the dust down. We do hear it when it fires up, but my ears tend to phase it out after that.

[lazydog]

We have it in Canada too and I hate it. Noisy, dusty (maybe need to vacuum the ducting, LOL!), overly drying... Thankfully we heat with the woodstove, mainly, so it rarely comes on.

[cjel]

Ours was never noisy or dusty.and our house was warm as toast. I am in the uk though so perhaps we have different systems?

[echt]

Ah. I googled asthma across the world and Canada, New Zealand and Australia all come very red indeed, and ducted heating is widespread/standard in each.

[ItsYonliMe]

Thanks for all your different experiences. Think we'll check to see how much it would cost to change the system completely before we get any further. I am asthmatic too.

[cjel]

If you have asthma perhaps its not a good idea! When we had ours changed the costs weren't that bad from memory.

[iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii]

We had this in several houses in Canada and although it is suitable for their climate I HATED it. The duct work is irritating, the noise is irritating and the vents are irritating. We had it with humidity control but I still didn't like the feel of it. It was always a little draughty. The lack of radiators was nice though.

I much prefer radiators or underfloor heating.

[PigletJohn]

which country are you in?

Is it electric or gas?

how old is the house?

[kyz1981]

There are hypoallergenic warm air boilers that are approved by allergy UK. Our last house had them and my DD has severe Asthma- she was better with them than in our new house that has Radiators- this could be a cheaper option as we had a quote for around £7000 for a gas central heating system. I also found it much much cheaper to heat, (we have oil - much more costly), ours also had a cool air flow - which was great in the summer.

[ItsYonliMe]

Piglet John - The house is a 1960s house in England and I've just discovered it's gas. That might mean that it wouldn't be too expensive to change to radiators if we don't like the hot air system?

[PigletJohn]

the 1960's systems are not very complicated, but you may find it very difficult to get parts if you need them. If you know who serviced it last, or can find an HVAC company who does warm-air, you could have it serviced and get an opinion on it. Maybe new filters are available if you have a dust problem. I imagine it will need to be cleaned out from time to time. An experienced person should know what the common problems are and how to get the best out of it.

If you have gas, you can certainly have a new gas CH and HW system installed, and the boiler unit will, I should think, be a great deal smaller than your hot-air unit (the electric ones are often even bigger as they often charge up a big block of concrete overnight on cheap-rate electricity).

A new system including piping and radiators will cost some thousands. It will be less disruptive if you can have it done before you move in and add carpets, furniture and decorating.

[MmeLindor]

We had this when we were kids - it was electric so don't know if the gas ones are different.

My brother had a terrible persistent cough right through the winter - I think nowadays he would have been diagnosed as asthmatic but they didn't realise at the time - it cleared up after the heating was replaced.

I would avoid like the plague, or factor in replacement cost when offering.

[ItsYonliMe]

Thanks for your advice all.

[fresh]

Our house had it when we moved in 13 years ago, and the boiler then was quite new. We stuck with it as I didn't want to lose wall space to rads. It was ghastly, very inefficient at heating, expensive to run but the worst was having warm dusty air blowing through the vents. In the end we took it out and replaced it with a traditional system but using custom rads to fit in awkward wall spaces so the main walls were clear. House is warmer and bills are lower.