Warm Air Heating v/s Wet Radiator Heating

[Dan Robinson]

The Ideal Mini i 24 boiler is excellent

Who says?

 

[Mikefromlondon]

I read the pamphlet and it showed what latest technology it uses and how it achieves very high quality at affoardable price, and had a chance to look inside mine when my installer was fitting it, and it looked wellmade and lots of space for servicing work, doesn't need much room to access parts, even the pressure vessle is on its right side as opposed to many boilers have it at the back, it uses the same plated heat exchanger as most other boilers now do, as with any mechanical parts things can go wrong from time to time as well as can be expected, no different to cars, a BMW is well made and more expensive but is just as likely to go wrong as a Nissan Micra, in fact if anything a Nissan Micra is far more reliable and less likely to go wrong because it is a lot simpler and thus less likely to be as unreliable as an expensive BMW or a Merc and servicing would cost cheaper to on a Micra. The same applies to Boiler, why pay more for a name?

 

[Dan Robinson]

You read the pamphlet?

 

[kidgreen61]

You read the pamphlet?

That's obviously where I've been going wrong all this time

 

[Dan Robinson]

Must remind me to dust off the pamphlets I have for the Isar, and all those other boilers that were sold that weren't remotely shyte despite what was premised in the pamphlets

 

[Agile]

I am not sure what this Mini I actually is.

But I seem to remember the logic has some very inaccessible looking bits at the lower back right!

"premised" ?

 

[Mikefromlondon]

I think it is the other way around, just swapp the i so it is i-mini.

I suppose because they are well made, less complicated and thus less likely to go wrong, and may be this could be the main reason why they are not liked by RGIs as it may dent their earnings potential, due to far infrequent call outs. Hence in your view it may be less than a perfect boiler, for me it is ideal!

 

[stardanny]

Ideal mini? Front look carp....

Daniel.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

Ideal mini? Front look carp....

Daniel.

I agree the looks aren't that great, however, if it does the job then that is what matters for now, the fact the water pressure gauge is tucked far back underneath in an a very awakward place and is not easy to look at, and is tiny, I like the looks and controls of Vaillant boilers but they are very pricey, and in this price lower range I would have preffered a Biasi boiler which has better controls and looks and these are hidden behind a flap. A Biasi Riva 24 that has been working fine for the last 3 years with no breakdown and hardly any topping up.

Each to their own, thats what it is just like people preffer different cars.

 

[ScottishGasMan]

A few points I would add to your first post. The difference in safety between an old style WAU and a new Style condensing boiler is not comparable, the new is much safer to have, there's not really an argument to have there.

As far as efficiency goes, there's a lot of vantage points to the word efficiency, yes the WAU provides nearly instant heat on start up so it will be quicker to get the air in the house warm, but its not more "Gas efficient" by a long way. By this I mean the amount of gas consumed to the amount of heat introduces into the house is more efficient one a wet boiler than on an old WAU. Again there's no argument, no "myths" about heating, its physics.

Also when you turn a warm air unit off the heat dissipates from the room at your normal heat loss, gets cold reasonably quick, with wet heating, the radiators are still emitting useful heat for quite a while after the boiler has gone off, so you also need to take that into account when working out gas consumption. After an hour or running you turn both off and calculate, but are you considering how much heat is still being emitted into the house from the rads.

As for boiler choice, I'm not gonna go there lol

 

[Mikefromlondon]

A few points I would add to your first post. The difference in safety between an old style WAU and a new Style condensing boiler is not comparable, the new is much safer to have, there's not really an argument to have there.

As far as efficiency goes, there's a lot of vantage points to the word efficiency, yes the WAU provides nearly instant heat on start up so it will be quicker to get the air in the house warm, but its not more "Gas efficient" by a long way. By this I mean the amount of gas consumed to the amount of heat introduces into the house is more efficient one a wet boiler than on an old WAU. Again there's no argument, no "myths" about heating, its physics.

Also when you turn a warm air unit off the heat dissipates from the room at your normal heat loss, gets cold reasonably quick, with wet heating, the radiators are still emitting useful heat for quite a while after the boiler has gone off, so you also need to take that into account when working out gas consumption. After an hour or running you turn both off and calculate, but are you considering how much heat is still being emitted into the house from the rads.

As for boiler choice, I'm not gonna go there lol

I like sensible discussions as you put it perfectly well here, this is what I asked people how I should compare the two, indeed there is no free energy, and the heat you put into a house is the heat you will get, any that escapes via the flue is a heat lost and money lost, if and when you are comparing the two systems, we can elliminate the heat loss of a house, because that would apply equally to both heating systems.

Yes so in the end, the wet radiator heating would take longer to heat but then contine to emit the heat as the radiators slowly dissipate their stored heat when the boiler shuts down.

Warm Air heats fast then also stops providing heat when it shuts down.


However, there is another element to consider, where our opinions may differ, a forced flow of warm air heat a space more evenly, (as it is claimed by Oven manufacturers and top Chefs that a fan assisted electric oven is better for baking as the heat in the oven is distributed equally and does not burn food more near one side than the furthest side away from the heating elements or gas flames in the case of a non fan assisted gas oven)

Radiators heat a space mostly using the convection principle, and some radaint heat from its surface, so most of the heat in a room accumulates towards the ceiling, in a warm air system, this air circulates better and so the rooms heat evenly, with no hot or cold spots due to air being circulated.

Usually in a wet heating system one can measure the temeparture difference of a few degrees between the ceiling height and a few feet off the floor, in a warm air heating the difference is very marginal.

 

[mogget]

Usually in a wet heating system one can measure the temeparture difference of a few degrees between the ceiling height and a few feet off the floor, in a warm air heating the difference is very marginal.

That's what fan convectors are for. That and saving space.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

I haven't seen one yet, but I am sure someone must have invented this to overcome the unevenness of temeperatures.

I read a while back how those ceiling fans left running on slowest speed in winter when the heating is on, can direct warmer air near the ceiling and direct it downwards to heat a room evenly. Sure must save a few pennys. Less heat at the top means less escape. hence this is where the old inefficent WAU may or may not win against the new more efficient wet5 system - meaning the new system may be sending most of its heat to waste near the ceiling, rather than heat the space evenly and use even lesser fuel.