Electric warm air:

Back in the mists of time before I was even a grown-up, there was no consensus on the best fuel to use for central heating in general, or for warm air in particular. In the 1970s when storage heaters were popular (mainly due to really cheap “White Meter” off-peak tariffs), electric storage warm air heaters were manufactured and fitted. These used cheap rate off-peak electricity to heat heavy ceramic blocks overnight just like a conventional storage heater, but the heat was distributed around the house with a fan blowing warm air from the blocks into the same type of ducts and grills as a gas-fired warm air system. 

These systems turned out to be so astonishingly durable that many are still in use today 50 years later, and I get a trickle of calls to fix them when they eventually break down. The usual fault (and about the only one that can be fixed) is failure of the big fan that blows the warm air around. Electric motors, even really good quality motors from the 60s and 70s, eventually fail. The good news is that most electric motors in these fans are generic in nature and even nowadays I can often find an equivalent new motor to fit. 

Other faults that sometimes present themselves are failure of an unnecessarily complicated electronic control panel fitted in some, and failure of one or more of the heater elements inserted into the ceramic blocks. Neither of these failures is fixable in my experience and a new appliance or complete heating system will be needed.

There is a company called Hyndburn Engineering Services Ltd whose website claims to supply parts for and/or fix these long-obsolete storage warm air heaters. I’ve found them rather unpredictable to deal with. Their website is here: http://www.hes.co.uk/

There is also Capri Calvert who supply parts for quite a few old electric warm air including the excellent Creda Electricaire. Website here: http://www.storageheater.co.uk/

Replacing an electric storage warm air system with something new and equivalent is not possible as far as I know. There are no products on the market which do the same thing. The nearest possible brand new electric warm air system is a conventional day-rate electric boiler designed to run water-filled radiators, connected to a water-to-air converter called an “air handler” There are several on the market by Johnson and Starley and called “Aquair”, and also an imported version available in various sizes made by Multicalor, marketed by Gas Flow Ltd https://www.gasflowlimited.co.uk/multicalor-air-handlers/

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