Your Warm Air Heating needs replacing, what should you do?

A popular heating solution for new builds from the late 1970s to 1990s was warm air. Essentially, a warm air heating system involves a boiler heating air and fans blowing the warm air through ducting built into your home’s walls. With hot water provided by a separate cylinder.

Many of these systems are now over 35 years old and are coming to the end of their operational life with spare parts increasingly obsolete. 

So, when your warm air system finally gives up the ghost there are essentially three options when it comes to replacing it:

1. Replace the warm air boiler with a like-for-like (if one is available).
2. Replace the entire warm air system with a wet heating system (e.g. a Combi boiler and wet radiators).
3. Replace the warm air system with a ‘hybrid’ system, consisting of a Combi boiler (or Regular or System boiler) for hot water needs and Heat Interface Unit (HIU) which slots into the space left by the old warm air boiler and provides heating via the existing warm air ducting.

This blog looks at the third of these options, using the Combi boiler as an example.

The Aquair HIU is a hot water to warm air converter and fits in the space occupied by your old warm air boiler. Instead of having a built-in burner, the Aquair uses the hot water supply generated by a Combi boiler located elsewhere in your home.

The Aquair HIU is designed to replace the most popular Johnson and Starley models installed from the 1970s, to the 1990s e.g. the J25-32, Economaire, and the HISPEC J32. There are five sizes available: S-10, S-16, S-20, S-25 and S-36 to suit most homes.

The ‘hybrid’ approach (e.g. the Aquair HIU and Combi) has significant advantages. 

First, it is considerably less disruptive than installing a wet radiator system. Your heating will still be delivered via the existing ducting in your home. Therefore, there is no need to install radiators and associated pipework in your home – and face the potential disruption that can involve.

Second, the Combi type of boiler (gas or oil) will cost-effectively supply instantaneous hot water to your taps allowing you to get rid of the hot water cylinder probably fitted with your existing old warm air boiler. If you do not want a combi, the Aquair can also work equally as well in tandem with a regular or system boiler.

Third, it will be much easier to find a properly qualified engineer. And cheaper to service annually too. To service or repair your old warm air boiler you will have needed to find a gas engineer who holds specific qualifications necessary to work on warm air, and such people are now quite rare. All aspects of the hybrid system can be serviced or repaired by any Gas Safe qualified gas engineer.

Finally, if you have no gas supply and rely on oil, the Aquair HIU can also be powered by an oil boiler. 

For more information and free advice, please contact UKBC on 0800 43 46 494 or email us at info@ukboilercare.co.uk