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Radiant Heating in Ceiling - Copper Sheets??
JLHillmann
Member Posts: 1
I have a home (built in '52) with a hot water radiant heating system. The pipes are contained within the gypsum/plaster, works like a dream (except when I hit a pipe, that's a different story).
Today, we were trying to switch out a ceiling light with a ceiling light/fan. So to re-run the wiring, we had to make one penetration into the plaster. I have an IR camera to locate the pipes, normally works like a dream.
Except today we discovered that the ceiling in that bedroom isn't plaster, it's drywall. We knocked a small hole in, and discovered a sheet of copper immediately above the drywall. Has anyone ever seen this before? I'm hoping that this was a standard practice, and not something they came up with on the fly.
Best I can tell, at some point the entire ceiling was dropped (maybe for a pipe leak) and replaced with drywall. If that's the case, I assume this copper sheeting was added to help dissipate the heat, and then new pipes were somehow installed top of the sheeting.
I should also point out that this ceiling vaulted and is on the second floor, so I can't get to it from above to take a look without going through the roof.
Any help/info/advice would be appreciated before we go further!
John
Today, we were trying to switch out a ceiling light with a ceiling light/fan. So to re-run the wiring, we had to make one penetration into the plaster. I have an IR camera to locate the pipes, normally works like a dream.
Except today we discovered that the ceiling in that bedroom isn't plaster, it's drywall. We knocked a small hole in, and discovered a sheet of copper immediately above the drywall. Has anyone ever seen this before? I'm hoping that this was a standard practice, and not something they came up with on the fly.
Best I can tell, at some point the entire ceiling was dropped (maybe for a pipe leak) and replaced with drywall. If that's the case, I assume this copper sheeting was added to help dissipate the heat, and then new pipes were somehow installed top of the sheeting.
I should also point out that this ceiling vaulted and is on the second floor, so I can't get to it from above to take a look without going through the roof.
Any help/info/advice would be appreciated before we go further!
John
0
Comments
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good question, sounds like a custom site built application. You can buy ThermaFin which is a copper tube with copper flashing, used in solar collectors. Maybe someone retro fitted some of that.Bob "hot rod" Rohr
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