Hot air central heating with a boiler - how harrd to replace?

[CatAndHisKit]

Does anyone have any experience of the 70s hot air systems but with a boiler. Confusing when I asked vendor via the agent whether there is gas in the block of flats (small block, large flats), he said 'no' - how can that be correct of there is a boiler?

Anyway, I'm assuming the system is crap to be blunt. I hate dry air and dust circulating, reminds me of heating on trains/buses - my skin also cant take the dry air.

I wonder if it's possible to use the existing boiler - though it may well be a special type - and add radiators? Or if there is indeed no gas in the block, could one flat imntall a gas system - and is it hugely expensive?
I still think that an electric new system will be the most costly to install and then the bills.

If your boiler is original it it’s probably very inefficient compared to modern models, I’d get someone in to go through your options. Maybe also have a look and see if there are green homes grants or similar you may be eligible for. I imagine getting gas into a block of flats is a nightmare. Might also be worth looking at air source pumps, it may be too soon but we’ll all have them in 20 years the way the climate change agenda is going. If there is gas in the building that would be easiest by far.

Hot air ‘boilers’ are different, so you’d need a new one. Radiators need hot water - hot air systems need hot air.

We still have 60s hot air. The ‘boiler’ was replaced about 5 years ago (the previous one had lasted over 20 years) and the new one is much more efficient and cheaper to run.

Both units always produced plenty of hot water so there’s some mechanism for that.

Maybe it's an electric boiler? They do exist.

As the previous posters if it is an warm air system you won't be able to repurpose it for use in a wet system with radiators.

Thank you all - very useful info. So repurposing is out, thanks for explaining.
GETTING I was hoping someone might be living with that system and can tell me more - have you never wanted to switch to another system? CAn you describe how the heating works - is it noisy, dusty, blowy like air conditioning? I can't imagine it warms a room evenly. What do you actually pay for in terns of bills - sounds like it's not electrical or gas!

notdaddy yes I was looking briefly into grants - needs to be a house/flat with no central system at all - it'd be fine if it was electric storag heaters - shame. The air pump does seem to be available on discount schemes, but I've read that they also need to put modern insulation into walls/floors, not sure if possible.

bump

My parents had their hot air system replaced for a wet system in the last couple of years, it was an easy enough job, and yes, needed a new boiler. However I always loved the hot air system, it heated up the house really quickly. It wasn’t noisy and blowy like the hot air heaters in schools etc. It didn’t cost any more to run than their new radiators do.

We have hot air. It has its pros and cons. Ours is on a gas boiler and we have a system that is linked to our water tank and therefore heats our water up. We had it updated a couple of years ago and the new one has an air filter system to collect dust. I love the fact that it warms the room up instantly without having to wait. I would say it heats a room evenly but once it’s off the room does cool down quickly. We have a digital thermostat and a digital timer control. The actual vents aren’t that noisy but there is a noise. If you sit in front of the vent then yes you get a breeze of air but you can’t feel it elsewhere (our cats favourite spot is to sit directly in front of the vent - heat stealer). I quite like it but it did take a bit of getting used to. It also has a summer setting and will blow in summer without heat if we want it to (not air con just like a fan).

We had our ancient hot air system and electric boiler removed but it was replaced with radiators with gas combi as there was gas connection in our property. The electricity bills were very very high with the old system so I think even if we had swapped to a new electric boiler with radiators it would have made a huge difference to the bills.

Paquita and ILove, thank you - great to hear from users of the system. The thing with heating a room very quickly is, does it gett too hot - or do you hae to have it on and off constanty as it cools down fast.
How effective are thermostats in this regard - does it heat it to that temp and then os off but quickly on again?
I wonder if the upgrading was easy to arrange / exoensive (good idea re filters), as ve read that not many places are around to service or find parts for these.
Soloina interesting - I thought it was cheap to run hence there was a ternd for them back then, but gas boiler ones must haev been more usual and mich cheaper then. Yes, not too keen on electric even though they aer better now. I assume you are in a house, not a flat though. I know you can install n flats in small blocks but whether ou'd need an agreement from other owners, not sure.

*Solina

If you have a decent thermostat and enough vents in suitable places, warm air systems are good at heating a whole room to the required temperature. It'll switch on and off as needed like any wet system. We never had a problem with ours overheating any rooms as the warm air circulates very quickly, unlike a radiator based system where the heat is initially around the radiators (and you might have cooler spots furthest away from the radiators if they're not powerful enough for a room). The only problem we had was in a house with vents in the ceiling, but I'm assuming a flat will have vents at floor level.

To be honest, I miss our warm air system. We had HEPA filters to keep down dust, we could put furniture almost anywhere without stupid radiators in the way and we could dry washing inside really quickly and not worry about condensation.

thank you, FuglyHouse - I still haevn't managed to view theflat (tomorrow hopefully) but can see on photos some vents at floor level as you say. How easy was it to install HEPA filters? I think this is crucial as I really don't want dust circulating.
Ok, so if it doesn't keep going on/off with a boiler noise, not to obad. It's just pp said the room equally cools down fast, so assumed that.

ILove, thank you - great to hear from users of the system. The thing with heating a room very quickly is, does it gett too hot - or do you hae to have it on and off constanty as it cools down fast. How effective are thermostats in this regard - does it heat it to that temp and then os off but quickly on again?

No problem.
I set the thermostat to 21 as I like it quite warm. Once it hits that temp the fan stops, once it cools down below 21 then the fan kicks back on (which does take some time - I find it depends how cold it is outside as to how often it comes on and off - the colder the outside whether the quicker the room cools down when the fan goes off and then the more often it turns on and off).

When I’ve set the temp lower it definitely doesn’t get as hot - so therefore I think the thermostat is pretty effective at controlling the temp. Tbh I don’t really notice the fan coming on and off, you kind of get used to it and it becomes background noise.