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Radiant Ceiling Panels?

MikeJL
MikeJL Member Posts: 9
in THE MAIN WALL
Looking for some guidance from the experts. We updated our heating system a couple of years ago to a radiant floor system (staple up Onix), had it designed by a local Heatway representative (now Watts?) and it works great. At the time we also were anticipating a second story addition to the home that adds another 700 sq feet of finished living area. We had the boiler sized to handle the extra square footage and had the additional mixing valves and circulators all installed at the same time. All that remains is to install the tubing (Onix was again specified) and thermostats and connect up to the manifolds. We looked at three methods of installing the tubing on the second floor including light weight gyp pour, sleepers over the new subfloor or a "chicken wire staple up". The gyp or light weight concrete pour was the preferred method but was eliminated because it would require costly/extensive upgrades to the existing floor system. The sleeper system would work OK for us but we give up a little "headroom". The chicken wire system involves stretching chicken wire across the joists and then laying the tubing in place on top of the chicken wire. Then the subfloor is installed over top. The chicken wire is supposed to keep the tubing in contact with the underside of the subfloor. I didn't believe this was a recommended method until the heating contractor showed me the Heatway manual and sure enough it is shown as one of the their methods. Anyways our heat loss calcs were done with either the sleeper system (no plates as this was Onix) or the chicken wire as the btu/square foot were about the same.

We finally roughed in the second floor addition this summer and now it is crunch time and we have to decide how to heat the area. Being a licensed builder I get lots of unsolicited mail and just received a great little magazine called Radiant Living. In it there is an article by John Seigenthaler that talks about radiant ceiling panels (indoor sunshine). He talks strongly about the benefits of the ceiling system and I like the idea of having an unrestricted radiator, no furniture or floor coverings to worry about. I just know my wife is going to want to put a big rug in the middle of the floor sometime down the line. Also he says you can run the water temps a little higher than floor temps to get more output. My heating guy has never installed a radiant ceiling but does not feel there is a big technological challenge as it is basically a floor system upside down. He recommended scrapping the Onix and going with Pex if we choose to go with the radiant ceiling so you can use plates as described in Seignthalers article.

What do you guys think? Is the radiant ceiling the way to go? I know the Onix system I have now works great and I trust it although I am still a little shakey on the "chicken wire" deal. Anything to watch out for? What about a "warm board" type product on the floor versus Onix? Could the "warm board" panels be used on the ceiling? My contractor says the existing controls and mixing valves/circulators etc are flexible enough to handle either a floor or ceiling system. Thanks for your feedback.

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