Radiant Ceilings

Tom_35

We are installing radiant heating in a very high end home using ECR earthlinked heat pumps as the heat source. Most of the home is on a concrete slab with the he-pex tubing embedded. We will have approximately 900 sq feet that will have the Onix staple-up with reflective insulation installed a couple of inches below the tubing.

This house has a very large master bathroom that will have a whirlpool tub big enough to party in. There will be steps coming up to the tub, marble surrounding it, and a large window (6' wide by 8' high) on the outside wall.

The area above the tub is a barrel ceiling with the top of the ceiling being approximately 12' above the tub.

We were told that the radiant ceiling wouldn't do any good from that height, but from what I've read, it should work fine.

We are planning on using Onix and reflective insulation batts with another R-38 blown over the batts. Water temperature will be 120 degrees.

Are we wasting our time with this? We could install tubing under the marble area but our thoughts are that the ceiling would be a better choice.

Thanks for your advice,

Tom

Mark Eatherton1

I hope...

you did the math. 120 degrees water temperatures are the MAX you will see when its not too heavily loaded.

At design conditions, you could see water temperatures much lower than that depending on your soil conditions, water strata etc.

The radiant marble would be better than the ceiling. The further you get from the radiant source, the more diffusion you will get with the radiant energy at lower temps.

What about radiant walls?

ME

Tom_35

Walls would work

Mark,

We could do the walls just as easily as the ceiling. We wouldn't have as much insulation value here since it would be outside walls, but would still have an R-24.

We will see what would be involved with it tomorrow.

TA

Constantin

You could consider the capillary tube system...

.... from Karo. Very thin, and it can be fit into walls, floors and ceilings alike. As a bonus (particularly with your ECR heat pump) you can cool the place too. Just a thought.