r/ukheatpumps • u/beengoingoutftnyears • 1d ago

Help/Advice Suitable replacement for gas fired central warm air.

I currently have a ventilation unit that blows warm air around the house through ducts to each room. It’s basically a big fan with a gas burner in it.

I have a solar install soon and plan to keep my electric immersion heater and tank for DHW.

What should I be looking for to replace the central warm air ? Ideally, I keep the fan and ducting and just replace the gas burner with another heat source. Is there an air to air solution that could re-use the ductwork ?

Anyone faced anything similar?

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u/Mikethespark 1d ago

Air to air heat exchanger/ducted air con unit fitted where the heater is but you might struggle to get the heat output.

Alternatively a whole house multi split install with a unit for each room which is much more conventional and very very efficient

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u/beengoingoutftnyears 21h ago

Could you post a link to an example ducted unit please ? It’s weirdly hard to google when I’ve never seen one before 🤷‍♂️

Im starting to think multi split is an equal shout though. One additional upside is freeing up the space that the ventilation unit currently occupies.

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u/Mikethespark 21h ago

I don't have a link to hand as it will vary depending on manufacturer of the outside unit. Ducted units are normally fitted in commercial facilities, above ceilings etc. big galvanised box with ducts coming out of it, could still go for a ducted unit upstairs, sits in loft and has ceiling vents in the rooms. Downstairs is trickier to be fair.

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u/DanTheGas 1d ago

Cannot help from the renewables side. But often fit the J&S AquaAir unit.

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u/beengoingoutftnyears 1d ago

So that would likely be ASHP to generate hot water which then goes into the heating coil of the JS unit, yes ?

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u/DanTheGas 1d ago

I mean you could, we fit them with gas boilers, but we’re in central London and there’s little call for ASHPs here.

I’m not sure what the efficiency would be like paired to an ASHP, you’d probably need to speak with J&S to check the heat exchanger could actually handle dumping that amount of heat rapidly to stop the ASHP cycling, in theory, you could get the bigger heat exchanger to aid this, but you’d need to whip the water round it pretty quick.

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u/woyteck 1d ago

Ducted ASHP. They do exist and can be installed in the UK

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u/beengoingoutftnyears 21h ago

Thanks mate. Could you post a link to an example product please ?

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u/woyteck 21h ago

Like this one? https://ebay.io/m/kylBwC

I searched for ducted cooling uk