Radiant Ceiling

Nick_16

Does anyone have experience with radiant ceiling? I would like to put it in my suspened-tile ceiling in my basement and garage. Do they make panels that you can put in rather than ceiling tiles? Who carries them? Thanks a lot!

GMcD

Radiant ceiling panels

Lot's of experience with radiant ceilings and panels. Basically you should be looking for the Sterling or Airtex radiant panels which can be made up in 2x4 panels to fit in a tee bar ceiling grid. They can even be silkscreened to match the pattern on standard acoustic ceiling panels so they blend in. Weblinks:

http://www.sterlingheat.com/html/radiant_heating.htm

http://www.twapanels.ca/

http://www.engineeredair.com/ProductDetail.asp?ProductID=20

Nick_16

But where can you buy them?

I went to the web site and it seems like that is what I want but do you know who carries them? Either an online site or store near Cleveland Ohio. Thanks! Also, if you know a website where you can BUY Slant/Fin or Sterling baseboard, please let me know.

GMcD

Local Wholesalers?

My advice would be to call the respective companies and see if they have a local distributor/wholesaler. Normally these types of panels are sold only through wholesalers/sales agents to Contractors. As far as I know, there are no "residential" type retail outlets.

Unknown

radiant ceiling

is not advised over slabs.

In my experience the heat absorbtion is too great. Unless you cover the slab with a thick pad and good thick carpet.

GMcD

Huh??

That's not true at all. A statement like that needs to be backed up by facts. A radiant ceiling is just another radiant surface like a radiant floor. The room will only lose whatever heat you put into it. If the space only needs 10 btuh/sf to provide comfort, and a radiant floor at 80F will do it, then a radiant ceiling at 80F (given the same surface area) will also do it. Remember, we're not talking about trying to heat the floor by using ceiling radiant panels. Human comfort is the infrared heat exchange between the human and the mean radiant temperatures of the surfaces around him. The only things that the suspended radiant panels lack is a bunch of mass, so they CAN be controlled with conventional modulating or on-off controls and still be effective. There are a ton of projects up here in Canada with perimeter high temp suspended radiant panels for "heating only" in slab on grades and suspended slab floor buildings and the effect you claim has never been an issue.

For a small residential suspended radiant panel job like we are talking here, you do not need high temperatures to make the system work. Radiant walls, ceilings or floors all rely on the same principle of radiant surface area and infrared heat exchange.

Jimmy Gillies

Nick

Sorry, I know this is a question about a system only related to yours.

Has anyone got a good detail showing radiant heated ceiling with the pipes(copper or pex)above sheetroc/gyproc, between joists. I'm sure I have seen a detail here before?

The ceiling strikes me as being an ideal place for radiant, as you could run it at a very high temp, access to damaged pipes would be easy etc. I'm also sure it must be used a lot in some area's or countries. Is the surface temp an issue with gyproc?

I would be very gratefull for any info.

Kind regards.
Jimmy Gillies Scotland.

Scott Gregg

Don't forget your insulation!

With a Rad ceiling you must remember to put in a nice thick laye of insulation above it to direct the heat down and keep from loosing BTU's upwards! Go with as much as you can fit or afford in the space. At least R-19, R-30 would be better.

jerry scharf_2

and more

Scott,

Not just insulate to drive the heat down, but also look for thermal bridges. The ceiling joists can also suck a bunch of heat out, especially for those looking to run the ceiling hot.

With the suspended ceilings, that decoupling comes for free, so you just need the insulation to direct the heat. This is just the ratio of the insulation values. So an R1 sheetrock ceiling and R19 insulation on top would push well over 90% of the heat into the room. Remember to watch those voids!

I'm solving this in a couple places by making sure the radiant surface in my ceiling areas is completely decoupled from the building insulation.

jerry