When environmental concerns came to the fore in the 1970s and 1980s, a diverse group of professionals and amateurs began testing out various nontraditional modes of building. She hears cracking sounds in the ceiling soon after heat is on. -Patrick Beebe-Sweet, MBA in Green Construction. I will have a professional come and do the work and getback to the discussion with the results. All rooms used or a few not? And don't confuse radiant versus forced air heat with electric versus gas fuel supply. Looking to repair or replace as needed.Thanks. i was putting insulation in outside walls while they were putting wiring in ceiling. We are remodeling our 1960 home and would like to update the thermostats. Depending on gas and electric prices a gas furnace is likely much cheaper to run than an electric furnace, and a gas boiler is likely much cheaper to run than an electric boiler for hydronic radiant. Not so much. Today, innovative systems allow homeowners to target different temperatures for different parts of the home. I have replaced the original thermostat twice, and each time, it seems like the thermostat is not functioning properly, that is, the heating element gets "stuck," and doesn't turn off, even though it is much warmer in the room than the thermostat is set at. My daughter lives in an apt (built in 70s) with radiant ceiling heat. Are you a distributor? So if youre sleeping in a second-floor bedroom, you no longer need to cover the cost necessary to keep the unoccupied first-floor at 70 degrees. Free shipping for many products! However, there was no voltage on the other grid lead. Also We need to repair one wire that the electrician cut into. Different systems have differing system-efficiencies- with differing fractions of distribution loss. If I had all thermostats on in each room it would be about 500 a month for 800 sq ft!! If the breaker's on, the heats on, even if the thermostat is turned all the way down. Need to contact us? My cabinet contractor is concerned that this might "burn out" the heating system. By all means get the house, but budget for CH or good quality storage heaters. ( electrical,wire is buried at the bottom, would preferred a mid slab but it was to complex to install that way). Thanks to haulbrookdf for your comment as well. However, their full potential has not been realized until recently since there were no detailed studies to verify energy savings during that time. Or go with something totally different like a mini split? Would it by fine to just clip this wire, and lose heat to the one panel? Welcome to ElectriciansForums.net - The American Electrical Advice Forum. It's ~4,000 sq. i want a new thermostat so this discussion help me deside maybe my son in law can not be the one to put the thermostat in. The house builders, before installing the plaster or drywall to form the ceilings, would install electric resistance heating Continue reading Electric Cable Ceiling Heat Pros and Cons, Electric Cable Ceiling Heat Pros and Cons. This was in contrast to a traditional. Question for the people smarter than me: I'm repairing a corner of the ceiling with radiant heat installed. Some of the folks who say radiant ceiling heat is horrible don't have a clue! Superinsulated too? It was just this winter we began to have some problems with our heating in the basement. Obviously its electrical resistance heat, and theres an attic above so theres doubtless some loss into the attic, but these definitely make you feel warm, because your head is so close to the heat source. Radiant ceiling panels cost about $50-60 per square foot. Here in heat-pump country we learned a long time ago that low-velocity high-volume systems are the way to go, and they make for a great, easy to manage background system. Calorique's ceiling heat products are 100% efficient with no parasitic loss. Navies on demand Hot Water . All of the homes were designed to be heated with a new type of system called radiant heat; Levittown was the first development of radiantly heated homes in America. If your having trouble with your electric radiant heat system (ceiling heat), give us a call. And I have 400+ sq. Follow along as I fix up this h. radiant: gas-fired unvented and vented; convective: vented and direct-vent) as supplemental (for centralised air-heating) or sole source of heat for 2 types of home: a 1950s home and a modern home. 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. A young friend asked me the other day as the weather is getting colder if I had fired up my downstairs wood burning stove yet. I would also add the US Dept. The remainder of sheets were 5/8 firecode. Ive read that asbestos is sometimes a consideration with these radiant heat ceilings. If you choose an expensive fuel like electricity, it's possible to save energy but still have higher energy bills. Very thin (2-3mm) type of matting laid all around between the ceiling joists. But if id have access to natural gaz at a better than electricity, i d still consider it. It is, like all electric resistance heat baseboards, fan-forced wall heaters, electric furnaces 100 percent efficient in converting electricity into heat. Please help.. thank you in advance.. Do I need to do anything special to paint my ceiling that has radiant heat? posted Sunday Jan 17, 2016:Well, nice to find this little group/conversation. Trying to get anyone here in OHIO to troubleshoot this issue has not gone well. Radiant heating panels have positives and negatives that can determine whether they are . my location makes a difference, because 1 electricity is ok priced here and 2, i do not have access to any other fuel sources :( Our home is just under 1100 sq feet with 3 zones. And I would like to see better apples-to-apples tests and comparisons of energy efficiency.). Has it been a while since you last looked into your options? Looking at buying an older home built in late 70's we think.. If you have a ceiling system, you may believe that you have the more energy efficient and overall better solution available. The combination of these two effects significantly increase . Electric radiant heat is very energy efficient and will certainly be economical to run. Google the old one. They had full heat sheets, half heat sheets, and 1/3 heat sheets. The heaters in the photo above may have had a higher density wattage for the application than required yielding 'hot heads'. Expected life - According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), a cadet-type wall heater or baseboard heater has a 10-15 year expected life. Alas, I've gone beyond the point of answering the Original Poster's question, and I don't wish to derail his thread. It may have taken a few thousand years to get right, but radiant heating has finally arrived. The mats dont get any hotter than the hottest parts of the lighting fixtures. Below is the link to the guidelines. bought a house from the sixties last year. Absolutely hate it. When i gutted the bathroom i discovered radiant heat in the ceiling. The only downfall is that if you want to add something to the ceiling for whatever reason, you need to get qualified expert advice how to not mess it up! It is NOT all about heating air. I have a ceiling radiant heating system (circa 1970) with a Honeywell TL8230A digital programmable thermostat. Wow, so glad to finally find this informative info. Electrical Safety Advice | ElectriciansForums.net. But if it's electric resistance radiant heat it's 250-300% as expensive as heating with a mini-split heat pumps, and at least 1.5-2x as expensive as heating with non-modulating ducted heat pumps. This feature has been temporarily disabled during the beta site preview. Finding a few cracked ceilings and staining near the walls as expected. If you have radiator, baseboard, or forced-air heating, you know the thermostat only approximates the temperature in your home. So when heated water travels through the hydronic tubing within aluminum panels, the metal swiftly transfers the heat to the home. They do have advantages when coupled iwth a displacement ventilation system, but it's not a common design in the US. A radiant ceiling has the minimal heat resistance of 5/8" sheet rock, while floors can have significant resistance to overcome with flooring goods and furniture. The heating working great, I just want a digital thermostat put in. It may take about 1-3 hours to finish installation in a single room. They do do work in Ohio. First you need to determine what KIND of thermostat you have. Steve, I don't want to just lay it up on top of the patch I put in (attic is above). It was comment #24. Radiant Floor Heat (all 3 levels),(2) Central HVAC units (heat & cool). Check to see if the ceiling heat is a film and possibly wireless..then there would be no worries. This system must be disconnected immediately if it hasn't already. There is also a Switch Action Closed thermostat and of course I got the wrong one the first time. baseboards, radiators, etc.". I have the product in both of my homes. It's an older system and I'll describe what I learned about it. I first noticed them in a hotel in Asia when I was wondering "where is that warmth coming from?!". The only problem now was the concrete. Small Business. I've installed many an electric radiant system in "gas country" and the results have always been positive. As a result, the reduced level of air heating equates to less loss of heat in vented air, and sidewalls and ceiling (since radiant heating systems when properly designed will direct the heat into the living space where it is needed most). fire-rated gypsum wallboard. It consists of a metal grid that hangs from the rafters and heats up when electricity flows through it (similar to how you might use radiant floor heat). I found the wire at an Ace Hardware store. I agree with you David - sort of. Baseboards have a High Surface Temperature. There are no parasitic losses, unlike a hot air furnace or hot water system. I did the work myself, because this is a very simple circuit. Now off to the hardware store for a section of 16ga solid core wire and splice out the broken wire. But for homeowners who want warmth more than anything else, the reason to choose a radiant system is that its design and technology always ensure maximum comfort. For this purpose it seems to be a simple and cost effective option and adds less than $200 to our electric bill per year. thanks. Improvements to chimney flues occupied many scientific minds. davidr IS WAY OFF BASE!!!! Copyright 2023 Acton Media Inc. All rights reserved. Is there anything we can use to see for sure where it is so we could make a hold for the box? The research project, completed in May 1994, was sponsored by the U.S. Dept of Energy, the NAHB Research Center and SSHC, Inc., the maker of the Enerjoy panels used in the tests.". This Prestige boiler for in floor heat and ceiling vented heat. I found the source feeding the room in the wall up near the ceiling and disconnected the power. They are 122 cm (4 ft) wide and 183, 244, 305, or 366 cm (6, 8, 10, or 12 ft) long. Stat in each room. ft. of glass facing north. Sorry, Martin, but there are plenty of studies out there. comfort, is mostly through what we touch (70%) and less about what the ambient temp is (30%). Sandylmcg, would the film be sandwiched between two layers of sheetrock? Has a 10mm copper strip down each side of mat, a type of fabric in between and is covered in a film. convective heating system. THere is a different zone for every room. the ceiling was torn down with new insulation and pour barrier installed. Since the overall thermal comfort sensation tend to decrease with an increase in the magnitude of I have never seen it installed between two layers of drywall before tho. (I don't know what they were thinking!) 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). 6 Replies. This is borne out by many independent tests as well as direct feedback from owners of electric radiant systems. http://www.radiantec.com/why/technical-explanation.php, Partial quote: How to Install Radiant Heat Ceilings | This Old House - YouTube 0:00 / 3:19 How to Install Radiant Heat Ceilings | This Old House This Old House 1.94M subscribers 75K views 2 years ago. 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 entire unit is mounted in silicone rubber to eliminate hum and expansion noise. I would like to have floor to ceiling built in bookcases put all round the periphery of one room to make a sort of library. Much of it is courtesy of John Siegenthaler who to my knowledge is THE most preeminent hydronic-heating scholar in the US. 4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars (699) $879.00 $ 879. However I'd be happy to go into greater detail at another time, perhaps in another topic area that is more appropriate. Radiant ceilings have the same effect in a current code built stick frame, as they did the the post war building boom when many homes (hundreds in a neighborhood here in Richfield, MN) used copper tubing embedded in the ceiling plaster. It's a public space used for gatherings, and the areas with warm ceilings are areas where no one would sit down. 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 Only drawback was you still had to put . We filled the tank in September and I checked it this morning and we are at just above 1/2 tank! Here's the first one I ran across: i have access to the attic space and i havent seen any evidence of wires. The living room and hall are tied together onone thermostat and has stop working. But we usually keep it at around 22c depending on the rooms ( light switch height thermostats on walls). The best way for one to reduce their energy consumption is to use electric radiant ceiling heat. See Heating Solutions for a Colonial Revival Addition. and we see alot of infloor water heating systems with both electrical and wood stove heat sources. I told her it would be too hot as the day warms up. Panels, each inset with hot-water tubing, lie under the floor material of your choice, delivering heat to the space above quietly, invisibly, and in a constant, enveloping way. 150 degrees could potentially damage a radiant heating system or its tubing. Sorry, Martin, but there are no parasitic losses, unlike a hot air furnace or water. Switch Action Closed thermostat and has stop working heat is on first time to do anything special paint! To natural gaz at a better than electricity, it 's possible save. 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