Radiant heat in the ceiling vs the floor

[Ed Pawlowski]

Maybe not. If you put a barrier over the top of the heat, it won't go up. Heat can radiate down, just as the sun does. I'd still rather have it in the floor, but ceilings can work.

[GregS]

Remember in a apartment, there is a floor then a ceiling, then a floor, then a ceiling,,,, There is no real insulation between apartments.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Do you know that for sure? It may have been in the original installation. Unless we can see it, we don't know what is there do we? Could be a reflective barrier.

>

[GregS]

I don't think the OP elaborated. Even if there is a reflective barrier, heat will still flow up.

I said earlier, if the celing is expected to heat a room, its going to be too hot to touch.

greg

[badgolferman]

Is there an up and down in space? The sun is round and radiates in all different directions because of its shape.

[greenpjs]

It seems to me that what is often called radiant heat isn't radiation at all. The heating elements do radiate to the nearby building materials (the floor) and then the heat is conducted through the floor to your feet and shoes as well as nearby air. The heat is then spread around the room via convection. In other words, using the sun's radiation as an example isn't very helpful to someone wanting to install radiant heat in their apartment.

The floor is much better than the ceiling because heating your feet makes you feel warm at a lower air temp.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Not true

If you add radiant ceiling panels they operate at about 150 degrees. BUT, if you use an imbedded system, the same amount of heat energy is spread over a much larger area and operating temperatures are MUCH lower. It is typical to run at less than 100° and use 25W panels.

[terry]

No. Incorrect. Warm 'air' rises.

'Radiant' heat will pass through and then warm the surface of almost anything it then strikes.

For example the radiated heat of the sun arrives at the earth's surface! Even through the almost complete vacuum of space. It them warms anything it can shine on and can cause sunburn! No matter if you are 'up North' or 'down' in Australia!

Also if you pt your hand below a hot light bulb one can feel radiated warmth.

One can hold a soldering iron above ones hand and 'feel' the heat below!

Also those bowl type electric heaters (and heat lamps) radiate heat in any direction, up, down, sideways, they wouldn't be much use if they did not. You don't have to stand on top of them to feel their warmth; sometimes they are mounted pointing 'down' in bathrooms.

Radiant heaters also sometimes mounted in ceilings of swimming pool buildings shining down. Have also seen ceiling mounted radiant heaters in the loading area of a commercial building and the floor some twelve feet below was damp and steaming!

[aemeijers]

Forget it, some of the people in this thread will never understand. Like I posted a week or so ago, I used to hang out in a house that had that ceiling radiant heat. Top half of the room felt fine, but stick your legs under the kitchen table (which I did on a regular basis, mooch that I am), and your legs were cold. If the house was sealed up for several hours, with nobody walking around stirring up the air, there was a definite layering of air temps. The ceiling heat was an infrared flashlight, basically. A wide, non-glowing version of a pool or garage heater. I can see why people quit installing it, especially at current power costs. I'd never use it.

I'm old fashioned- I like gas forced air heat. If I was building a McMansion with lots of tiled showoff areas, I might also consider floor radiant heat, since I hate wearing shoes inside. (But then you also have to install a separate system of tiny tube ducts for the AC.)

-- aem sends...

[krw]

I had it in an apartment thirty or so years ago. You're right it was horrible. AND expensive, even then. I now have forced "cold air heat" (heat pump) and am not too impressed with it either. My last house had gas-fired hot water baseboard, which was nice.

"Tiny tube ducts"? If you're wanting to cool the slab, bad idea. I don't like cold feet.

[aemeijers]

No, the tiny (high pressure) tube ducts run through the ceiling to corners of the rooms. Same house as had the radiant heat, and same thing they do for people that want AC in a boiler'n'radiator house. Slabs stay cool from ground contact anyway. (Not that I would ever build a slab house, but that is a different rant for another time.)

-- aem sends....

[krw]

Oh, those aren't what I consider "tiny" (perhaps 6-8"). When I lifed in VT we had "window" units, through the wall. It wasn't hot enough and there weren't enough hot days to justify central AC.

That's very true. Unfortunately there was little choice in my current house. Slabs are the norm, which ruled out basements also. Fortunately the ground never gets cold enough to make the floors unbearable, even the tile.

[Tomes]

"aemeijers" ...

Well put.

[GregS]

The radiation is useless because you need air circulation in this case. That kind of defeets the purpose of the hot ceiling.

greg

[krw]

As has been point out before, defeets get cold too.