Warm air vents

[Kittley]

We've viewed a house we really like that requires some cosmetic work but in a perfect location etc. However the house has a warm air vents system (gas). Has anyone bought a house with warm air vents? How are you finding it and did you get it changed to gas central heating? If anyone has any ideas of how much roughly it could cost to have it changed to gas central heating and if it's a really difficult job to have done it'll be much appreciated. Thanks

Hello I'm not sure exactly how old it is however the person who lived there has been there for more than 30 years and the house is very dated inside so I'm guessing the warm air heating has been there since at least 1970s. It's a 3 bed detached link house. I believe the water is heated by gas as well. If we were to buy it, we would have to rip out the old kitchen and potentially have the warm air vents replaced to gch at the same time. The thought of how much work and cost it would be scares me.

My in laws had this heating in their bungalow - North East. It was useless. The last rooms on the circuit never had any warmth left in the system to heat them. Eventually they had extra electric heaters installed in the rooms to supplement the 'central heating'. This was a very old system though but has put me off for life.

I grew up in a house with warm air vents, although electric - built in the late 60s. The idea was that the heat rose, so there were no vents upstairs, but it was freezing upstairs in the winter. Downstairs, the hot air flow would go on and off according to a thermostat but it would get boiling hot and then freezing cold. It was also a dry heat, which could make you feel thirsty. The upside was that our cats loved it and would sleep in front of the air vents, although some were positioned by doorways, so you would have to be careful not to trip over sleeping cats!

This is common in America. It can make the air dry, but my family come over, look at my radiators, and ask when I'm going to get central heating!