Radiant electric ceiling heating

It is not very popular here. Nobody wants their heads heated. I had a friend that had that in a luxury home. It was the most uncomfortable heating system specialy when it got very cold.

Here's one recall-- FLEX-HEAT CEILING HEATING SYSTEMS

Ontario Hydro is warning homeowners that Flex-Heat electric radiant ceiling heating is dangerous and that if your house has such a system you must disconnect it immediately. Ontario Hydro says the system can fail without warning and may become a fire hazard. Most houses with Flex-Heat have a label on the electrical panel box or a label on the thermostat indicating that it is a Flex-Heat system. Some houses with Flex-Heat do not have labels. These houses can be identified as having radiant heat by the fact that the rooms are heated but have no ductwork, no radiators and no electric baseboard heaters. Most houses with radiant heat have individual room or zone thermostats. If the house has electric radiant heat and no stickers indicating that it is Flex-Heat, the attic should be inspected (under the insulation) to determine whether black plastic panels have been installed immediately above the ceiling. Flex-Heat was only installed after 1975.

Several spec homes were build here in northern Maine in the early to mid 80's with electric radiant ceilings, to my knowledge the majority are still in service.... It was the last of "the future of energy: cheap nuclear electricity". I have been in some houses with it, the owners say it works well. Still kinda scary IMHO.

SFM

If you're going to try and tell me that radiant in the ceiling is as comfortable as radiant in the floor, sorry, there is no way, and it'll be much more expensive to run, it's a ridiculous design based around it being easier and cheaper for a builder and whenever those are the two primaries in building design, the design is going to suck.

Electric radiant in the ceiling is ridiculous unless you want to heat the floor above, like I said I never saw it work, never met anyone that lived in a house with it that liked it especially the electric bills, all they said was "what can you replace it with and what will it cost?".

Ceiling radiant when properly installed, and when used with an efficient delivery system (hydronics) has many benifits over floor radiant.

Ceiling radiant is not effected by floor covering choices, furniture blocking output, lack of density due to cabinetry in kitchens, baths etc. is not limited to the 87* surface temps that floors are. Even less with wood floors. So higher outputs can be achieved with ceilings.

Don't fall for the heat rises belief either.

I won't disagree neutral floors are nice in barefoot areas.


Don't forget the walls either.

The electric ceiling radiant I have seen used wires embedded in either concrete or plaster. As long as there is some amount of insulation behind it, I'm quite certain that modulating it with ODR (possibly with the addition of an embedded temp sensor) would produce excellent occupant comfort levels.

BTW, inflammable things burn quite well.

Zmesh is a fine product if electric is your choice. However electric is not a first choice in heating loads my neck of the woods.