Radiant Ceiling Heat

[mjcrodgers]

I have did a FHA inspection on a condo that has Radiant Ceiling Heat. I cranked the bedrooms and living room up as high as they will go before I started my inspection and after 20 minutes still did not notice any heat, even when I stood on a step later to touch the ceiling. How long should these things take to heat up? The listing broker insist that it worked for the home inspector, just takes a while to heat up. Any suggestions on how to test these, besides waiting 30+ minutes? Thanks.

 

[The Warrior Monk]

I'm not familiar with type of heating system, nor have I ever come across one. It makes no sense either, since heat rises.

 

[The Dog]

I have did a FHA inspection on a condo that has Radiant Ceiling Heat. I cranked the bedrooms and living room up as high as they will go before I started my inspection and after 20 minutes still did not notice any heat, even when I stood on a step later to touch the ceiling. How long should these things take to heat up? The listing broker insist that it worked for the home inspector, just takes a while to heat up. Any suggestions on how to test these, besides waiting 30+ minutes? Thanks.

In my neck of the woods, around 1970, they were the IN THING. No clue who the brain was that figured heat falls, but the rooms are ALWAYS cold. The only to tell if they work or not is to stick your hand up close to the ceiling. Should feel heat within a couple minutes of turning them on.

BTW, very very very very inefficient and highly undesirable in my market, if they still work

 

[TC]

Fairly common in my neck of the woods, too. Built back when electric was dirt cheap. I have a vacation condo in NY with radiant heat circa 1980, fairly efficient, and since I have one above me, one below, and one to the side, it's usually pretty toasty.

TC

 

[JSmith43]

I appraised one with resistance heat in an addition ceiling. The darned place burned to the ground not long after the appraisal. I swear I never turned the heat on!

The people were on vacation when it burnt down. I just happened to catch the news and there was that unique home in flames with the fire department drenching it right on the TV screen. Total loss. I wonder how good my Cost Approach was? That was over 20 years ago.

 

[Ray Miller]

They were figured out by the guy who wanted is honey snuggle next to him all the time.

Now just get your self a honey or a 1/5 of Jim Bean and wait for it to warm up.

 

[Mr Rex]

They are very inefficient and often only part of the ceiling will be heated due to breaks/shorts etc. I use a Infrared Laser thermometer to tell if it is working and how much is working when doing a Home Inspection. I use my hand on appraisals to verify that at least a portion is working in each room. The market reaction here to radiant ceiling heat is somewhere between having electric baseboard heat and having no heating at all.

 

[Mike Boyd]

With that type of heating, the AIR is not warm. It radiates to the object, such as people, carpet, sofas, etc. but NOT to the air. It is not energy efficient as it works in such a way that it can take hours and hours to heat all the objects in a given room. The idea was to leave it on all the time so as to maintain the temperature of the objects rather than trying to heat them up after a cool-down. All that I have known that were installed have been abandonned with more conventional systems retrofitted.

 

[Don Clark]

Sold to builders as Gold Medallion. Even got credit from the IRS as energy efficient....yeh, right. Many ceilings ruined by the damned things. The ones in the floor are no better.

 

[Jim Mallon]

I've got radiant in my place (two story townhouse, built in 1980). Incredibly inefficient. Basically I shut it off for good a couple years ago and thank god for sweatshirts and a generally mild climate.

One or two nights a year it will get cold enough the thing kicks on anyway. The first floor still doesn't heat up at all, and the only way you know the thing is on is when you get out of bed your bare feet touch a strangely warm floor. It's a weird enough sensation to give you the heebie-jeebies, actually.

When I first moved in and was trying to figure out how the system worked, I turned up the thermostat overly high to kick on the heat; a few hours later the second floor was like a sauna and only the top 2 feet of air on the first floor heated up. I never could find the happy medium, so I stopped using it altogether. [I do have a nice fireplace when absolutely necessary, though. And I'm a big fan of Irish whiskey.]

I'd be curious what it costs to convert from radiant to FAU. I'd probably need to make a proposal it to the HOA so we could convert the whole project [16 units.] $$ anyone?