So rather than wait around for the weather to turn foul once more, capitalize on the off-season to reassess your home heating. Now who is more comfortable? It's NOT a heatlamp! In general, these studies proved that radiant heating systems offer the potential of (1) reduced heating unit sizes (due to reduced heat load and peak load), (2) reduced Actually, electric radiant heat has all of the advantages of radiant heat and none of the drawbacks of convection electric heat as stated above. ft. of glass facing north. Radiant ceiling heat is a style of heating that is significantly different from the radiators or forced air ducts that you may be used to. This (I don't know what they were thinking!) Prior to replacement, we were burning oil like mad! For instance, in some radiant setups, hydronic tubes (or electric coils) are embedded within a slab of sluggish concrete that takes hours to heat up and cool down. Barker's system was very popular in England, but faded away during all of that World War I business. I can email those to you as I don't have a web-based link to share at the moment. Btw Martin, fuels costs are way to high here to consider anything else than fire or electricity, environmental thermal non-uniformity (Sakoi et al., 2007), higher air temperature gradients can also lead to a lack of spatial uniformity of thermal comfort in the given space (Kalisperis et al. 6 Replies. worst heating ever and super inefficient. Of course, Wright was ahead of his time in more ways than one, so it was not until decades after his death that radiant heat finally came into focus. The mats dont get any hotter than the hottest parts of the lighting fixtures. This principle of using wire elements to create radiant heat has been greatly refined over the years and forms the basis of many current energy-efficient infrared heaters made today. There are many reasons for this. There is also a Switch Action Closed thermostat and of course I got the wrong one the first time. ( still feels 10 times less air movement that in our prior central heated house ) But even a gas-burning 50%-er would not make electric radiant mats a more cost-effective solution in most markets. The best way for one to reduce their energy consumption is to use electric radiant ceiling heat. The previous owner also added gas forced air heat. While that is a long time, the NAHB rates radiant ceiling panels with a 40-year life. I need to replace my thermostats, as they don't really seem to shut off the heat. http://www.toolbase.org/PDF/CaseStudies/enerjoy_case_study.pdf. Products. I snipped the wires in two and maretted the ends. Radiant and convective heating systems produce different thermal comfort environments and generally differ in energy consumption due to their nature of heat delivery or removal. Radiant heat and convection heating are different approaches to space heating and they do not deliver the equivalent results. Great to see posts about homes built in the late 60's - 70's that used radiant ceiling heat. ive also cut 4-1/2 holes between joists for can lights and have not seen any wires in the cross section of gypsum board. We have radiant heat in our ceiings. The most practical thing for homeowner is to use radiant heaters to heat the ceiling mounts. At the thermostat, with power to the system and the thermostat turned off, you should have 220v across the thermostat. So I depart and leave you to your bliss. A collection of one thousand construction details organized by climate and house part. This website was designed, optimised and is hosted by Untold Media. With forced-air heating, the most ubiquitous type in America, temperatures are particularly variable, thanks to the roller-coaster effect of the system turning on and off. In the bedrooms we have dark streaks on the ceiling where the tape is. This efficiency means that your furnace doesnt need to work as hard, and you save an additional 10 to 20 percent on energy costsabove and beyond what youre already saving by choosing radiant heat over a traditional system. Radiant flooring provides considerable design flexibility and warms chilly feet. Price Diffusers has a nice design guideline for using radiant ceiling panels on thier web site. Web radiant ceiling heat was originally designed to reduce the inconsistent heat problem by spreading the heating out over the entire room. Is it smart to still consider anything other than heat pump system ?? In winter, this situation is reversed with your warm indoor air moving through the plasterboard and outside of the home. I am looking for some truth here and am always open to learning new things. One thing I will add is we hung a ceiling light and had to buy a stud finder from Lowes so that we didnt hit the radiant system. They are NOT hard to find. We were advised to set the thermostat at the start of the season and then not touch it. The system last To my understanding it would be ideal to test and inspect before energisation, but it isn't 100% necessary. There's a 4" electric junction box on each 2x4 with wires coming/going. Patrick, I told her it would be too hot as the day warms up. Electric Radiant Ceiling Heating System Benefits 100% energy efficient Maintenance free Quiet, safe and clean Superior heating comfort -gentle even temperature from floor to ceiling Aesthetically pleasing design - system is completely concealed Room temperature can be verified from anywhere in the building How can I find local installers of it.? Can anyone suggest a thermostat that works with the in ceiling closed loop radiant heat? Hydronic systems also have pretty low distribution losses, and almost all of those losses accrue inside of conditioned space and are not fully "lost" during periods of real heat load, even if they're not heating the exact zone calling for heat. Then came 1907 and a British professor named A.H. Barker came up with the first real radiant heating system, the "radiant panel," which used a large surface like a floor or ceiling to radiate heat into a building's living space. Though settings could be somewhat lower for other folks as we like to wear not much more than light clothes and everybody is bare feet. Not only would the concrete take too long to heat up, but it would also continue to radiate for several hours after the thermostat had been turned down or off. In this type of system, heat arrives, not via vents or standalone units, but from panels under the floor. According to the Department of Energy, "Radiant heating has a number of advantages. When the delivery systems are similar a BTU is a BTU. It's an older system and I'll describe what I learned about it. If you want steady, even heat in your home, one option is to forego traditional systems in favor of radiant heat. I apologize for sounding preachy but it might help if you check out this book: http://www.pexsupply.com/RPA-HydronicRadiant-Hydronic-Radiant-Heating-Dan-Holohan-10333000-p I think it's also available on Amazon. I found this forum trying to see if it was safe. I have the product in both of my homes. Conventional systems that uses air as the transport medium has lower (maximum) potential for delivering sufficient heating/ cooling since it is limited to the thermal capacity of the air and its ability There's no downside to that. Only when the boiler and distribution plumbing are in uninsulated unconditioned space does that loss add up to much. They do do work in Ohio. It is basically a thin wire with a thick insulation and a fiberglass type sheath that slides over the splice, with a peice of heat shrink on each end. They now claim no responsibility so trying to replace it ourselves with something different. What can I do with this weird 2 ft cantilever. My spouse died 9 years ago so I rely on others to help me with their opinions. It was determined to be from ceiling heat. In the United States, it was none other than the distinguished architect Frank Lloyd Wright who first introduced the concept of radiant heating to countless Americans. So, it will cost you a lot of money to get it installed by a professional. Voltage from each hot wire to one of the grid leads showed 85v, same as my good room. I have no idea what sort of ceiling heat is being discussed, but when I lived in Colorado in the mid-70s, I worked for a contractor during the winter building expensive custom houses. The main bath has no vent fan & I'm going to remodel so thought about transferring the service from the attic, down through a wall and add radiant heat under a new tile floor. Ceiled heat was the way to go. They dissipate energy fast as well. 1989). I'm new to this but stuck with an issue, so I'm looking for some help wherever possible. ( but i don't like spiders and dirt in the house :p ). This system is helpful in homes with low ceilings and small spaces. You need to think about this as a complex system involving humans in order to answer the questions about comparing fundamentally different heating systems. Ducted-air systems (I prefer that to 'forced-air', which implies excessive pressure and velocity) need not have a wind-chill effect. Forced-air and baseboard (whether electric or hot-water) heating systems are convective systems because they use air as the primary heat-transfer medium. how do I know for sure I have a reading on a ceiling joist and wont be putting a heavy ceiling screw in the heating system?? It is a unique feature of hydronic heating that one can change his mind. Copper tubing however, is able to handle temperatures and fluctuations without damage . Wrong. I also love the individual thermostats in each room. The 3 ways are at each side of the garage at the 2 Hi There are no parasitic losses, unlike a hot air furnace or hot water system. Some people prefer hot feet -- some people prefer a hot head. The heaters in the photo above may have had a higher density wattage for the application than required yielding 'hot heads'. Can the ceiling panels be repaired (some are cracked and sagging) as drywall would be? If the breaker's on, the heats on, even if the thermostat is turned all the way down. See Heating Solutions for a Colonial Revival Addition. Channel manager at Calorique. It is darkest where the ceiling and wall meet. These differences cause some owners to be dissatisfied with the overall operation of the system. Nuns convent: Outdoor kitchen counters for an indoor kitchen? Some will try to convince you that the old switches are impossible (expensive) to find. In one of our more recent design/build radiant systems we radiated the slab in the basement and the ceiling for the main floor at the same design water temperature - 110F ,which of course modulates with outdoor air temperatures having an average design water temperature made for heat pump or condensing boiler. Should we be concerned? She was concerned because houses the age of mine that is have caught fire in th ceiling. Ingeniously, hydronic tubes were set into the concrete flooring. Whereas its thermal mass had proved an asset before, it was now making the system sluggish. radient ceiling heat in all the rooms. "Everybody who uses this type of heat pays high fuel bills.". Though its not always impossible to achieve zoned heating with traditional systems, newer technologies accommodate zoning from the get-go. Try calling 800-922-9276. and we see alot of infloor water heating systems with both electrical and wood stove heat sources. 1990). It's very comfortable and maintenance-free. Our only concern is that it has radiant ceiling heat. I am unsure how to even begin figuring out what kind of system I have, I just know we love the heat and want to keep it. First of all, your lectures about mean radiant temperatures and comfort are condescending. Ill post when i talk with electrician. I have lived here for 24 years and I absolutely LOVE this heating!! Steve Kilbride, what do you pay for a KWH along with location and heating degree days? We liked to have our bedroom cold and the rest of house warm. House was built in early 1970s. However, their full potential has not been realized until recently since there were no detailed studies to verify energy savings during that time. dose this thmomstat look familar to any one? I read about it, and anticipated that we d be comfortable with lower temp, It's an older system and I'll describe what I learned about it. Stat in each room. We LOVE it and its still working great almost 60 years later except in laundry room where Len the Plumber cut the wires. Radiant ceiling heating works without vents or blowing elements, which make it practically noise-free. Thanks to haulbrookdf for your comment as well. Numerous researches on radiant heating systems have followed then, mostly evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of this type of heating system and comparing with the traditional The panels conduct heat so effectively that they can be used beneath any type of flooring, be it tile, hardwood, or even thick-pile carpeting. Maybe you didn't intend to do so, but this is what you wrote. The . https://radiantcooling.com/how-radiant-ceiling-works/. The entire unit is mounted in silicone rubber to eliminate hum and expansion noise. Not every radiant heating system maximizes homeowner savings. But yes thanks if I ever need to take the ceiling out I will have it check for asbestos. Only drawback was you still had to put . We did remove the covers on the thermostats to paint but even afte . A worst-case hot air system could be running under 50% net efficiency due to high air-handler-driven infiltration. The human body is a radiator and it is also a detector of radiant heat. Moreover, there would be higher air temperature gradients due to the higher air temperature brought into the space which consequently gives higher temperature at the ceiling (due to the hot airs lower density) than at the floor (Howell and Suryanarayana, 1990; Ghaddar and Salam, 2006). You wrote, "Just noticed this discussion.". I have a new home and it has radiant heat in ceiling that goes back to the 1950's and has black pipe as coils. Forced air heating and cooling is integrated and common in homes with existing ductwork. Erfahren Sie hierzu mehr in der Houzz Cookie-Richtlinie. Therefore, the bedrooms upstairs benefit from the heat on the first floor. Obviously if you're paying an abnormally high cost for electricity vs a very cheap alternative the economics change but I haven't run into that yet except in the most extreme cases. My painter suggested Lowes. Mechanicals: Natural Gas Equipment. It's the kind with wires spaced throughout the ceiling. -Patrick Beebe-Sweet, MBA in Green Construction. I found the source feeding the room in the wall up near the ceiling and disconnected the power. Most have an operating window of 10 degrees Fahrenheit, starting 5 degrees Fahrenheit below the set temperature and heating to 5 degrees Fahrenheit . Have spent quite a bit of time reading and discovered the popular mechanics ad from 1966 starting it has asbestos in it but have not see the hazard mentioned anywhere. Or if heat loving relatives visit. $500 for winter heat is great. Ive been through coal, hot water and force air heating systems. Worst invention ever. These panels contain asbestos and should only be removed by proper asbestos remediation contractors. Combine that with a nice radiant point source like a wood stove for cosy winter evenings and you have the best of both worlds. Most radiant heating systems are in the floor, and last time I checked most occupants of a house are near the floor. In an effort to improve upon radiators and space heaters, radiant ceiling heat was designed to provide consistent, even warmth. . Apr 5, 2017. Good luck to everyone and stay warm!! Below is the link to the guidelines. every room of the house has radiant heating and yes it does dry out the joints and will crack it over and over as heat will remove moisture. But you cannot compare forced air gas heat with electric radiant based on the cost of electricity and gas alone. Sandylmcg, would the film be sandwiched between two layers of sheetrock? It is NOT all about heating air. Great info here. Please cite a paper or study supporting your theory; I've never read one. Just the bathroom affects our electric bill minimally compared to cooking and hot water. Thank you. Radiant ceilings can easily operate at surface temperatures up to 100 F, delivering in excess of 55 Btu per square foot. Looks quite dated, going by the rest of the install would say no earlier than 1970's. Currently trying to suss out where its wired from. 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For can lights and have not seen any wires in the wall up near the ceiling and disconnected the.!