Thanks for all the responses - it sounds like this could be an interesting experiment and that it could have some positive affects on my heating bills.
To answer some of the queries:
1 - The heating ducts are all found internally to the building.
2 - Vents are located in the floor of the ground and first floor, and in the ceiling of the second floor.
3 - The vents run in every room and the ducting is about 20 cm in diameter. Enough for a good push of air.
4 - Temperatures in my attic are typically at least 10 degrees higher than on the ground. floor. I do tend to lower the heating on the ground floor as it is not used as much. Heating the ground floor would be advantageous to me if it is cost effective.
5 - I dont think I will be using any kind of hydronic coils etc. I just want to stick to a basic air system similar to what the ducts were used of originally.
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Overall I think this idea has some legs and would be an interesting experiment. I am about to renovate the property and was initially interested in whether to pull the ducting out or leave it in place. On the basis of this thread I will probably leave most of it in.
With regard to cooling of bedrooms. I have lived in town houses all my life. The top floor gets incredibly hot even with windows open. The only option is to have a fan to move the air around, but I only do this in extreme conditions. If I can adapt the ceiling vents to minimise the necessity of using the fan then this would be ideal.
Queries I still have are:
Can anyone recommend a decent fan that would be good for this type of set-up. The core requirement would be that it needs to be quiet, cheap to buy run. Once installed I do not want to hear the thing in the attic whilst I sleep :-)
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