Hi My house has warm air central heating using gas and my gas bill is about
350 a year. I also use gas for cooking and hot water and have a power
shower connected to the hot water tank. Has anyone ever done a comparison on
costs, or replaced their warm air central heating with radiators and is
there, as I have been told, a significant cost saving of gas, if replacing
the warm central heating  with radiators?

If I got a new heating system etc would I still be able to use my power
shower or will that have to be changed also?

The heating was installed when the house was built in 1991 and I have lived
in it since new. I ask because I just had it serviced by Scottish Gas and
the engineer said it is getting near the end of it's life and did I want
Scottish Gas to give me a quote for a replacement system using radiators. If
I did decide to replace it, it would not be with Scottish Gas.

Thinking about the cost of a service contract anyway I have paid Scottish
Gas about 100 a year since 1993 and if I had radiators, if something went
wrong with the plumbing I could easilly get that fixed (relative a plumber)
and just pay an engineer if there was something wrong with the gas so would
not need a service contract, another saving.

I live in Scotland if it is relevant

Thanks for any info Ronald

hi, i had warm air heating till 2 years ago, i had it serviced as i`d just 
moved into the house, the engineer said it was past it`s best and should 
anything go wrong with it the parts would almost certainly not be available 
(it was 18 yrs old) the engineer had no interest in installing a new one he 
only serviced boilers etc,so he wasn`t trying to sell me a new system.

i decided to bite the bullet and had central heating put in ,we did have a 
power shower but changed it to a shower that runs off the boiler ( 159 i 
think from screwfix) .
i can only say that the new heating is wonderful compared with the old ,i 
find the rooms are more evenly heated, and as each rad has a thermostat, we 
can select what rooms are warmer i.e the bathroom (we could not do this with 
the old system)
 price wise i`d say our bills are 10-15 % cheaper but it`s hard to tell with 
all the price increases recently, having also changed supplier.
would i do the same again? yes without a doubt.
"Ronald"  wrote in message 
news:KO4ae.17365$G8.16837@text.news.blueyonder.co.uk...

> Hi My house has warm air central heating using gas and my gas bill is 
> about
> 350 a year. I also use gas for cooking and hot water and have a power
> shower connected to the hot water tank. Has anyone ever done a comparison 
> on
> costs, or replaced their warm air central heating with radiators and is
> there, as I have been told, a significant cost saving of gas, if replacing
> the warm central heating  with radiators?
>
> If I got a new heating system etc would I still be able to use my power
> shower or will that have to be changed also?
>
> The heating was installed when the house was built in 1991 and I have 
> lived
> in it since new. I ask because I just had it serviced by Scottish Gas and
> the engineer said it is getting near the end of it's life and did I want
> Scottish Gas to give me a quote for a replacement system using radiators. 
> If
> I did decide to replace it, it would not be with Scottish Gas.
>
> Thinking about the cost of a service contract anyway I have paid Scottish
> Gas about 100 a year since 1993 and if I had radiators, if something went
> wrong with the plumbing I could easilly get that fixed (relative a 
> plumber)
> and just pay an engineer if there was something wrong with the gas so 
> would
> not need a service contract, another saving.
>
> I live in Scotland if it is relevant
>
> Thanks for any info Ronald
> 

On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 10:59:54 GMT, "Ronald" 
babbled like a waterfall and said:


>Hi My house has warm air central heating using gas and my gas bill is about
>350 a year. I also use gas for cooking and hot water and have a power
>shower connected to the hot water tank. Has anyone ever done a comparison on
>costs, or replaced their warm air central heating with radiators and is
>there, as I have been told, a significant cost saving of gas, if replacing
>the warm central heating  with radiators?
>
>If I got a new heating system etc would I still be able to use my power
>shower or will that have to be changed also?
>
>The heating was installed when the house was built in 1991 and I have lived
>in it since new. I ask because I just had it serviced by Scottish Gas and
>the engineer said it is getting near the end of it's life and did I want
>Scottish Gas to give me a quote for a replacement system using radiators. If
>I did decide to replace it, it would not be with Scottish Gas.
>
>Thinking about the cost of a service contract anyway I have paid Scottish
>Gas about 100 a year since 1993 and if I had radiators, if something went
>wrong with the plumbing I could easilly get that fixed (relative a plumber)
>and just pay an engineer if there was something wrong with the gas so would
>not need a service contract, another saving.
>
>I live in Scotland if it is relevant
>
>Thanks for any info Ronald 
>

Depends what sort of hot air you mean, you didn't clarify it enough.

I have a non-ducted gas fired warm air system then it is the cheapest
by far, if inefficient. This is being replaced by a combi radiator
system and we expect at least a 30% increase in bills, but we get a
much more *directed* heating around the house.

From the investigation we did last year with ducted replacement vs
radiators, the figures looked very similar,  in cost, but these were
only theoretical ones on guesstimates and supposition.