Our customer had an old warm air unit using an open flue system.
Warm air is amongst the most efficient methods of heating a space, and most homeowners with a warm air system would not have anything else, especially radiators! Warm air was very popular from the 1950s to the late 1980s in the UK, with over a million installed at one point.
However, they have gone out of fashion now and new units are only installed as replacements, which brings us to our customer in Bookham, near Leatherhead, Surrey.
The old unit used to use a conventional flue, that is, a chimney. These are not considered as failsafe as the modern combustion systems used on domestic boilers, where the gas combustion is sealed to the outside.
Johnson & Starley, the sole domestic gas warm air manufacturer in the UK, brought out a new Economaire warm air range in 2001, and this uses the room sealed concentric flue system. This range also incorporates ‘System ET’ (even temperature), which incorporates a varispeed fan blower and a pulsing gas valve to provide a subtle heating effect employing the highest economy. It also removes the need for a pilot light.
New Economaire 32 with internal water heater
Our client wished to have the latest unvented pressurised hot water system, so we linked the Economaire’s internal water heater to an RCM Copperform Ultrasteel unvented cylinder.
Unvented cylinder shown to the right
This unit provides mains pressure cold and hot water services to all outlets.
Finally, we fitted the optional Johnson & Starley Cleanairflow filtration system. Ideal for those with dust allergies etc, the Cleanairflow filter uses electrostatics to remove particles as small as cigarette smoke from the recirculated air. These units are extremely effective, so that you have to regularly clean the filter element!
