Ceiling Radiant Heat

CvilleE

Going into winter, the heat must be turned on. In KY the weather has been mild so far say the least, but getting to the point I have radiant ceiling heat. This type of heat is very dry and new to me. We have to keep ceiling fans going all the time to circulate it, and with a well insulated house there is still rooms that still seem to put off more heat than others. Location maybe, the time of day, the direction of the sun? I really don't know how to describe it.

What I can say is that since we've had to turn it on the temps in the humi has jumped 10 degrees (75+). Checked the cooler, and it is getting close. Finally convinced my wife to let me order an Oust Fan to put in the cooler, but I'm just curious to how everyone keeps the temps down when the heat comes on. Does anyone have radiant heat, and how can I keep the crop safe. I don't have a cooled basement to store them....I have a garage, but don't think freezing my babies r an option. Any thoughts?

KCW

My experiance with Radiant heat is that it is in the Floors (Warmer air rises as cooler air falls). Never heard of it being in the ceiling. Don't you have a thermostat you can turn it down with? Thats how I maintain it in my house. Too bad there is no basement. Thats where mine goes in the Summer when we're not home with the AC on.

laker1963

KCW:

My experiance with Radiant heat is that it is in the Floors (Warmer air rises as cooler air falls). Never heard of it being in the ceiling. Don't you have a thermostat you can turn it down with? Thats how I maintain it in my house. Too bad there is no basement. Thats where mine goes in the Summer when we're not home with the AC on.

Yeah, the radiant heating I have encountered is usually in the floor as well however I do see it in a couple of the commercial buildings that we maintain. It is not unusual for there to be warm and or cold spots with this type of heating as the building is broken into zones and unless you are in a building with straight walls and no outcropping rooms they do create uneven heat.

I keep my coolerdor in the garage because of drastically varying temps. and humidity in the house. The garage doesen't get too hot or too cold and the humidity is easier to control out there. The cooler itself also helps with the interior temp. of the cooler due to the insulation qualities of the cooler itself.

All you can do is find the MOST stable area of your house and use it, or go to complete environmental control of a room or built in humi, and obviously that would be expensive.

CvilleE

KCW:

My experiance with Radiant heat is that it is in the Floors (Warmer air rises as cooler air falls). Never heard of it being in the ceiling. Don't you have a thermostat you can turn it down with? Thats how I maintain it in my house. Too bad there is no basement. Thats where mine goes in the Summer when we're not home with the AC on.

Thermostat is in every room, crazy but put it on 50 degrees, feels like 70...we keep it around 60 all last winter, but didn't have cigs then....now I don't know what to do?

KCW

CvilleE:

KCW:

My experiance with Radiant heat is that it is in the Floors (Warmer air rises as cooler air falls). Never heard of it being in the ceiling. Don't you have a thermostat you can turn it down with? Thats how I maintain it in my house. Too bad there is no basement. Thats where mine goes in the Summer when we're not home with the AC on.

Thermostat is in every room, crazy but put it on 50 degrees, feels like 70...we keep it around 60 all last winter, but didn't have cigs then....now I don't know what to do?

Wow. Thats wierd. If you can't control the temps w/thermostats I don't know what to tell you. Do you have a garage like Laker suggested?

bigharpoon

What kind of heat is it? I've never heard of ceiling radiant heat that runs on electric fans. The fan part is confusing because I don't see how that could do anything to radiant heat which is hot water piped through conduit. If your heat is electric try turning one room way down. If it's hot water conduit radiant heat try finding the end of the loop before it returns to the boiler and that should be the coolest section.

CvilleE

bigharpoon:

What kind of heat is it? I've never heard of ceiling radiant heat that runs on electric fans. The fan part is confusing because I don't see how that could do anything to radiant heat which is hot water piped through conduit. If your heat is electric try turning one room way down. If it's hot water conduit radiant heat try finding the end of the loop before it returns to the boiler and that should be the coolest section.

The heat is a wire mesh that is rolled over the ceiling. Each room has its own thermostat for that reason. So u turn the thermostat on in each room and the wire mesh heats up, being in the cieling you have to turn the cieling fans on to force the heat to the floor, wierd I know. Don't perfer this type of heat but it came with the house. It has nothing to do with the water heater, just each room has its own sectioned off roll of mesh. I'm suprised no one has heard of this type of heat.

J.S.

I have heard of it but my experience with the wire mess stuff is it is normally under the tile floor. I assume that this is similar only in (or just on?) the ceiling. I don' t know if there is anything that could be done but I would try not turning it on in one room and see how much cooler that room is from the rest of the house. If it is too cold maybe turning it on but not turning on the ceiling fan in that room would help?

kaspera79

J.S.:

I have heard of it but my experience with the wire mess stuff is it is normally under the tile floor. I assume that this is similar only in (or just on?) the ceiling. I don' t know if there is anything that could be done but I would try not turning it on in one room and see how much cooler that room is from the rest of the house. If it is too cold maybe turning it on but not turning on the ceiling fan in that room would help?

I've heard of Radiant Ceiling heat, it was more popular in the 60's and 70's when electricty was considered more affordable, very comfortable, and efficient since it heats the objects in the room not just the air. This may be where the problem lies.

It's probably not used in new construction as the primary source of heat, and I would imagine many homes that had this system updated to a more eficient Furnace or boiler.

CvilleE

kaspera79:

J.S.:

I have heard of it but my experience with the wire mess stuff is it is normally under the tile floor. I assume that this is similar only in (or just on?) the ceiling. I don' t know if there is anything that could be done but I would try not turning it on in one room and see how much cooler that room is from the rest of the house. If it is too cold maybe turning it on but not turning on the ceiling fan in that room would help?

I've heard of Radiant Ceiling heat, it was more popular in the 60's and 70's when electricty was considered more affordable, very comfortable, and efficient since it heats the objects in the room not just the air. This may be where the problem lies.

It's probably not used in new construction as the primary source of heat, and I would imagine many homes that had this system updated to a more eficient Furnace or boiler.

That makes sense. Thanks for the info...

KCW

CvilleE:

bigharpoon:

What kind of heat is it? I've never heard of ceiling radiant heat that runs on electric fans. The fan part is confusing because I don't see how that could do anything to radiant heat which is hot water piped through conduit. If your heat is electric try turning one room way down. If it's hot water conduit radiant heat try finding the end of the loop before it returns to the boiler and that should be the coolest section.

The heat is a wire mesh that is rolled over the ceiling. Each room has its own thermostat for that reason. So u turn the thermostat on in each room and the wire mesh heats up, being in the cieling you have to turn the cieling fans on to force the heat to the floor, wierd I know. Don't perfer this type of heat but it came with the house. It has nothing to do with the water heater, just each room has its own sectioned off roll of mesh. I'm suprised no one has heard of this type of heat.

Yes. I have this in my Bathrooms (Under the tile floors). Its called "NuHeat" But again, I just adjust the thermostats to the desired ROOM Temp. My thermostats will register either the FLOOR temp *where the radiant heat is. There is a sensor on the floor.) or the room temp (ambient temp of the room). Maybe this is where you are having problems with controlling it. Check out the setup on your thermostats.

bearb

Another key point is that, like with all zone radiant heat systems, it relies upon heating the mass, which then heats the room, which is a SLOW process typically....in other words it takes hours or even days for the ambient air temperature to reflect what the thermostat is asking for because the mass of plaster, concrete or whatever it is embedded in needs to heat 1st, then re-radiate...typically one cannot turn it up when you come home from work and expect the house to heat up in a few minutes, not going to happen like it does with a forced air furnace.....I would suggest that you just set the thermostat at the desired temperature and leave it for a few days...not fiddling and see how it works....then adjust it slightly up or down to suit....basically a set it and leave it philosophy is required....hope it works out for you.