hot air heating

[andekoch]

I am looking at refurbishing a place that has ducted hot air underfloor heating (enters the room via a vent in the floor). The boiler was installed in 2003 and seems to have been serviced every year (cant remember the make right now).

My questions are:

1) is how good / efficient is hot air heating?

2) what problems does this cause? eg noise transmission between rooms, fire stopping, dust etc

The place neeeds a lot of work to the electrics so the real question is should I leave the heating as it is or should I look at replacing it (don't feel like replacing it unless there is a reason to). The house seemed warm and quiet and the boiler looked in good condition (visual externally).

thanks

[Mike Jackson]

Heat up times are very good with warm air. Dust shouldn't be a problem as long is the filter is cleaned at least once a month, some units even have electrostatic filters which are great for people with allergys. If fire stopping was required when it was installed there will be fire damping in the ducts and the return air vents will be fitted with intumescent vents.

When carrying out the refurb work it's important to remember if there are large gaps over/under doors they are probably meant to be there.

Mike

[Puddle]

Yes warm air systems are very efficient and it is suppose to be healthier due to the filtration and air circulation. The reason it is not installed more is because the ducting is best fitted when property built and the installation has a higher cost, however with the government on this efficiency band wagon you would have thought they picked up more on this system and maybe given a little subsidy.Anyway hope refurbe goes well remember to cover vents in rooms while dusty works going on because although as said, filter fitted to system (make sure it is still fitted)still best to keep ducting as clean as possible and as the filter is situated sometimes below the fan therefore any dust ect is pulled through the fan before being filtered out.A good point about the under door spaces, I have been to some with a small gap above to door frames. Also another good point, espcialy upstairs is that it frees up all wall spaceAnd remember once works all completed, get the boiler serviced and balancing checked