Radiant heat in ceiling?

[RaggedHunter]

I really appreciate all the replies. Add this to the list of many reasons I love rokslide. As several of you have mentioned the radiant heat in the house in question is located within the sheetrock in the ceilings all through the house, each room has it's own thermostat. The house has good windows and insulation, it is a single story house, really well built.

I have wrestled with the idea of heating in the ceiling, but as a couple of you mentioned while yes hot air rises, radiant (think of the sun) travels in a straight line, so as someone above mentioned it heats the objects in the room. I've actually talked to a couple people on a Facebook page that have it and say it is their preferred method of heating, and even 1 home builder who liked it enough he installed it in his own home. But the jury is still out on that until I live with it for a while and have formed my own opinion, but I do have my reservations, I'll have to see it to believe it. I do know that I have been in houses with in floor radiant heat, and it is extremely comfortable, probably my preferred heating. Whether I will feel the same way about radiant ceiling heat is still to be determined.

Several people who have it have mentioned that ceiling fans make a big difference also, which this house has. I've also talked to several people who say there was a big difference between the ceiling radiant heat installed in the 50's-60's vs the stuff installed in the late 70's and 80's, they say the newer stuff works much better. This house was built in the late 80's. SO I guess we've got that going for us along with the good windows and good insulation.

The heat is my only hang up on the house. Everything else about the house and property hits all my wife and I's marks. We have requested to look at the current owners utility bills, and that should give us a good idea of what to expect. But in this case, I don't think my skepticism on the heat alone is enough to make me walk away from all the house has to offer. I will likely set a little money aside, and plan to add a second heat source of some sort down the road, be it a pellet stove, wood stove, or maybe even central air. IF it turns out that we love the ceiling radiant heat then you'll see me burning through the rokslide classifieds. In which case, you just keep your mouth shut or my wife will expect that money to go to her Pinterest projects.

Thanks again for all the input.

 

[Firehawk]

I work for our local utility implementer in Utah. We have some really strong incentive programs for homeowners who currently have that type of heating system (all electric), to move to a ductless Heat Pump option. The kWh savings is significant enough, that our utility company is paying homeowners to switch over. With as much growth as we are having here (Idaho and Colorado are similar as well), there is a lot of pressure on the given utility infrastructure. So...if incentivizing homeowners to switch works, they will use less kWh and that means it frees the grid up for more expansion. Ductless, although fairly expensive up front, is a very efficient way to heat a home. And the added benefit of it being a Heat Pump, means it is your AC as well.

We have similar incentives for converting from a standard Central Air Conditioning/Furnace system to a High Efficiency Dual Fuel Heat Pump. That is a really strong rebate/incentive for homeowners. If a homeowner on Rocky Mountain Power's grid, was looking to change some equipment, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming RMP customers have really strong incentives. To the tune of thousands of dollars.

Hopefully your money saving techniques work. I would hate to see those hard earned savings go to Pinterest projects. Especially, when it could have bought you a new Swarovski NL Pure Binocular or something else great like that.

 

[ben h]

heat curves

The linked article shows the ideal heat curves for comfort with the various forms of heating. Radiant floor heat is the closest to ideal, and forced air is the furthest from ideal. Radiant ceiling isn't perfect, but it's better than forced air. With forced air this is why depending on floor coverings, you can have the thermostat set at 70F+ and your feet are still cold.

In floor radiant is expensive to install, but it's very comfortable.

 

[HomeTownJB]

I have radiant heat in my ceilings. Sounds like the same system as you described. It's in-between two layers of sheetrock and each room has its own thermostat. My house is a ranch built in 1970. We actually love the system, it heats really well BUT it's super expensive. We have since retrofitted our home with a geothermal system which also then gave us AC. We still occasionally use the radiant heat because it gives us the ability to heat one room more than another, in our newborns room for example or in our basement, or my wife's favorite....the bathroom so it's toasty when she gets out of the shower. One other downfall is if you ever want to add additional overhead lighting, you can't really put holes in the ceiling because you'll likely run into the wiring. We ran into that issue when remodeling our kitchen.

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[ben h]

HomeTownJB since your geothermal also gave you AC, I'm assuming you went with a forced air system? Geothermal is the absolute best system for cost to use, but in my experience is very impractical due to upfront install cost. Where I'm at it's too expensive to have enough land to bury the pipes relatively close to the surface, so it requires vertical drilling to get enough pipe in the ground to do it. The drilling coupled with land make it extremely expensive.

I'm curious roughly how much were your electric bills using the electric ceiling heat, vs what they are now and what was the all in cost for the geothermal install? What climate are you in?

 

[WV Mountaineer]

There is nothing efficient about heat produced from electricity. Nothing. Run a heat pump for winter heat. You’ll leverage something just to pay the monthly bills.

If the house has the ability to have a flu built somewhere, a good wood burner or coal stove would spoil you for sure. It’s -3 out right now. My heat pump hasn’t cut on for weeks. Coal is ‘da bomb.

 

[HomeTownJB]

HomeTownJB since your geothermal also gave you AC, I'm assuming you went with a forced air system? Geothermal is the absolute best system for cost to use, but in my experience is very impractical due to upfront install cost. Where I'm at it's too expensive to have enough land to bury the pipes relatively close to the surface, so it requires vertical drilling to get enough pipe in the ground to do it. The drilling coupled with land make it extremely expensive.

I'm curious roughly how much were your electric bills using the electric ceiling heat, vs what they are now and what was the all in cost for the geothermal install? What climate are you in?

We were going to have AC installed anyway, so it made sense to do the geo system at the same time since they were going to have to run ductwork either way. I have acreage, so the space wasn't an issue. Cost was $33,000 but there was the 30% tax rebate the year we had it installed, so the effective net cost was about $22,000. Not sure if the tax rebates are still in effect or not? We had a quote for a regular forced air furnace and AC with new ductwork and that was $15,000, so we decided the extra $7K was worth it. It is also worth noting that we are on propane and not natural gas. I plan to install solar at some point to go off grid. Our bill was around $900 per month in the winter before we had geo installed. I live in southern Michigan for climate reference. Our winter bill is around $210 now. Summer bill is only around $75. Very happy with our decision. Air to air heat pumps are a good option now a days. The systems go down to 0 degrees now I think.

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[Outdoor Writer]

Our bill was around $900 per month in the winter before we had geo installed. I live in southern Michigan for climate reference. Our winter bill is around $210 now. Summer bill is only around $75. Very happy with our decision. Air to air heat pumps are a good option now a days. The systems go down to 0 degrees now I think.

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Gulp! I thought our $400 summer bills in AZ are the pits. We have a 5-ton heat pump for about 3,000'. Rather than take the big hits in summer, we have a plan to pay a monthly average. For about the last 2 years, that's been $210. And that's with a wife who has never seen a light that she didn't like left on.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

Gulp! I thought our $400 summer bills in AZ are the pits. We have a 5-ton heat pump for about 3,000'. Rather than take the big hits in summer, we have a plan to pay a monthly average. For about the last 2 years, that's been $210. And that's with a wife who has never seen a light that she didn't like left on.

It must be a female thing.