Hi I did a home inspection today and found four thermostats each in a different room. There is not a single vent in the home which is a condo, and there are no base board heaters either. What am I missing???
Thanks
Mark
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Radient floor heat with a commen boiler, maybe. they also make electric type radient floor heat-thou I haven’t seen any installed-just available for purchase.
Jamie
Thats what I was thinking but the condos only have one garage and it belonged to my client. All the condos shared a hot water heater which was in the garage but no boiler that I could find. I did turn on all of the thermostats let them run for over an hour and the floors all felt the same as before I turned them on. I am going to get in touch with the property manager and see what the deal is. I cant ask the seller as it is a probate sale by the state the original owner died so no dice there.
Thanks for your help
Mark
hmmm, that is odd. Let us know what you find.
Jamie
Controls for a secret room where he houses his “prisoners”.
Hey Jamie,
You’re in California, chances are it’s electric radiant ceiling heat. Should have found individual breakers at the panel for same. It’s normally a low amp feed and can take 30 minutes or longer before you can detect a ceiling temperature change.
Thanks Will, That sounds like California not here in Colorado, I used to live in South Laguna many years ago I’m in Colorado now-Mark was the one that found this -I was just guessing-but wouldn’t have guessed ceiling heat.
jamie
ONLY in California would they devise “Ceiling Heat”. What ever happened to “heat rises”???
In the panel there were two 20 amp breakers labeled heater. another clue to the mystery! I am going to see if it has ceiling radiant heating. Although there is no attic to access I will get the info from the home owners association. I am going with the secret room for prisoners for now though.
Thanks Again
Mark
I have to inspect a home with Radiant heating tomorrow and this is some of the info I have found . Google ( Ceiling Radiant Heating )
http://dulley.com/docs/f778.htm
http://oikos.com/esb/37/radiant.html
http://www.radiantpanelassociation.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=97
http://www.clarkpublicutilities.com/Residential/TheEnergyAdviser/Archives2005/05_02_20
The only negitive information I have found is from people who have no idea what it is . I have received many emails and not one said any thing bad .
Will Post my thoughts soon .
Roy Cooke ,… RHI… Royshomeinspection.com… CAHPI-ON…](“http://www.clarkpublicutilities.com/Residential/TheEnergyAdviser/Archives2005/05_02_20”)
I would have utilized my infrared thermometer and scanned the entire room (with the switch ON).
Adding for Base board heaters one thing to try and never miss is the curtains should never go down to the heaters increased chance of fire and the efficiency drops if all the heat goes to the windows first then the room .
Roy Cooke
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You will not see the ceiling heat system from the attic. The ones that I’ve seen run small electrical wires after the drywall has been installed over the top of the drywall, then the drywall finishers apply their sprayed on brocades (whatever finish) over the top of the wires. Your client should know that if they are purchasing a home with this kind of installation, that if any of those wires are cut or damaged after putting holes in the ceiling, they will lose the heat to that room. If you had to replace a small patch because of water damage, say from a roof leak, replacing the drywall would damage the heat system to that room, and the heat system would have to be replaced.
I have been a drywall finisher and contractor for 20 years, and have only seen this kind of an installation a couple of times, and they are a real pain to work with. If you had to put 5 screws or nails in a ceiling, chances are 1 of them would hit one of those wires as they are spaced so closely together.
Not only is Mark in California, he’s in Ramona, and he was in a condo, so I’m 99.9999999999% certain he found radiant ceiling heat.
It’s certainly no worse than the central forced air system where the registers are only a couple of inches below the ceiling. Heat also rises in those cases. The only logical heating systems are floor systems, but yet we all know that the standard forced air system with the registers up high do work, as do the radiant ceiling heating systems.
That’s what I do. I record the ceiling temperatures at the start of the inspection, turn the systems on, and then record the ceiling temperatures after one hour. A working system will usually go from 72°F to 102°F in one hour.
Very useful. Thanks, Troy.
Hey Everybody
Yep you guys were right radiant ceiling heating. I got in touch with the HOA and the HOA guy lives in the unit below. He told me that it is radiant ceiling heating. Russell thanks for the info I am going to go back tomorrow and test the ceiling temp then turn on the heat and let it run for an hour then test the temp again. Do you think that if it is cold out and the unit below turns on their heat that it will also heat the above unit as heat rises? Hey thanks again everybody you guys are great keep up the good work!
Mark
I did the one I was talking about yesterday 40 year old home and they all seemed to work well I did the trick with the laser thermoter and also the spray water on the ceiling .
Looking at the ceiling from up or down could not tell it was radiant
Water only worked on the ceiling that did not have a good coat of paint on it ,it only just beaded up on those that were well painted .
I also printed of all the
http://dulley.com/docs/f778.htm
http://oikos.com/esb/37/radiant.html
http://www.radiantpanelassociation.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=97
http://www.clarkpublicutilities.com/…s2005/05_02_20
and gave a copy to the client, they loved the info.
Roy Cooke
Hey Again
Through some research I have found that there are at least two types of ceiling radiant heating systems. There is a cable system that is installed on the drywall before the texture is applied also there is panel systems that is installed first then the drywall over top of the panel. Just thought that I would pass this on.
Mark