Radiant Ceiling Heaters?

Joe McCormick

Member
Messages
27
Location
Near Colorado Springs, CO
Has anyone heard of Solid State Heating Corp. and their radiant ceiling heaters called ENERJOY Radiant Peopleheaters? http://www.sshcinc.com/BarNone2.htm
They are sort of expensive upfront but I am thinking in the long run they will save me some money on the electricity bill. I found an article from Fine Woodworking Tools & Shop 2001 magazine where a guy used them in his shop and he was very pleased with them. I like the idea of no moving parts, no maintenance and no noise and the fact that they are mounted on the ceiling where they are out of the way.

I would like to find someone that is using this type heater to hear what there opinion is about this heating system.
 
Hi Joe, They sound interesting but I wouldn't be sold on them. They mentioned about base board heaters. Houses and heating systems are designed a certain way for a reason. Hot air rises. Heating down from the ceiling just makes no sence. We use the base board heaters in front of windows for a reason. They produce a warm wall of heat that forces the colder air coming off the window up to the ceiling, forcing it to mix with the warm air and filling the room with that heated air at the same time circulating the air. Forced air systems work in the same way and are put under windows for the same reason. Not saying that they are no good I am just pointing out how and why we have the systems that we do.

Drew
 
Hi Joe, They sound interesting but I wouldn't be sold on them. They mentioned about base board heaters. Houses and heating systems are designed a certain way for a reason. Hot air rises. Heating down from the ceiling just makes no sence. We use the base board heaters in front of windows for a reason. They produce a warm wall of heat that forces the colder air coming off the window up to the ceiling, forcing it to mix with the warm air and filling the room with that heated air at the same time circulating the air. Forced air systems work in the same way and are put under windows for the same reason. Not saying that these systems they are selling are no good I am just pointing out how and why we have the systems that we do.

Drew
 
Looks interesting Joe, easy installation, no idea how well they'd work, thats more a question of how tight the house is and BTU output, etc. Big question is where do you get the power, and how much do the units draw.

My grandfather's house in Oregon had radiant ceiling heat, encapsulated in the horrible popcorn ceiling. That was just wires more like this company's underfloor product. Seemed to work well, each room had its own thermostat. Under floor might be preferable, but ceiling is a lot easier to retrofit - aside from the wiring.
 
I've seen those, or similar in use. They throw an incredible amount of heat down. Have to because heat naturally rises. Seem very inefficient to me. I think they also work on the infra red principle like heat lamps that just warm the subject when standing in the ray but not the air. I would consider only as a last resort when no other system is practical.
 
The key word is radiant. Radiant heat doesn't rise. Warm air rises. Radiant heat goes away from the radiant source in all directions. The sun is one form of radiant heat and is pretty effective.

The heat radiating on a surface them warms that surface and it sinks heat into the air ect and then it rises. I have been in houses with radiant heat and didn't care for it. If you were shadowed you were chilly. For example sitting at a table your legs and feet would be very chilly while your head, arms and torso would be fine.

You get some secondary transfer of heat from the warmed items to the air and then convection will move it around some(mostly up).

I wasn't impressed with what I was around but that was thirty years ago..

Garry
 
Radiant heaters are often used in industrial situations. You'll often see them on loading docks or in factories. I actually noticed some recently in our local HD above the checkout counter where the doors are constantly opening and closing.

I looked very hard at radiant floor heat and would have had it in my shop except for some building permit problems and plumbing problems. I also looked at overhead radiant tube heat but that was the problem. I had no idea my hair was getting a little thin on top and in the back. A couple of years ago when I still smoked, I went to the designated smoking area outside of a local hospital. The area is covered and heated with electric radiant heat tubes.....when the thermostat turned on the heat, my scalp felt it in back and on top. Yup....gonna look like my maternal grandfather!:huh:With overhead radiant heat tubes, there is a minimum height requirement or they can actually create some overheating problems on wood and other things. My shop has 10' ceilings and it was borderline to the top of my work surfaces.
 
Love mine . . .

As I've got an open ceiling the overhead mounted radiant heater is the way to go. Slightly of to the side and over the bench. I've discovered the effective " fan " of warm goes out farther to the sides than I though it would, so in my 10 x 10 shop I'm good almost eveywhere except right behind it. Get one with two elements / rods. One rod ( low ) for chilly mornings and two for " London Broil ". Only issue I had was my Big Dremel hanging right in front of the heater. No other choices for placement of either so I hung a peice of " tin foil " on one side of the Dremel hanger " between " them. No more issue. Still waiting for the 'lectric bill to see if I'm saveing as much as the hype says. I'd still use it but it'd be easier to justify staying toasty even when I'm not glueing.
 
Last Christmas, I bought each of the boys a 1500 BTU Radiant unit that mounts to the ceiling above their work area. My son mounted his on a Lazy Susan bearing so he can turn it to different areas of his garage. Over his shoulder when he is at his workbench, directed toward the exercise equipment for his son, or toward the car, depending on the task at hand. My S-I-L liked the idea and I gave hime a bearing but yet it is not been done. Both boys liked the radiant heat directed toward them which kept them warm although the rest of their garages were shy of warmth. S-I-L has a wood stove and after a while the heat would catchup and negate the need for the heater.

My experience with ceiling mounted radiant heat. I heat my garage with a Propane Radiant heater. Again heats only in the direction it is pointed. I used the same heater in the houseboat during the winter, Although in an inclosed structure, we go in and out so often there is an air exchange (we turn it off at night and rely on sleeping bags for warmth) But I also have a pot of boiling water on the stove which puts humidity in the room and gives something for the radiation to heat, that way it can warm a larger area.
 
There are farmers here in Iowa who heat large insulated pole barn building/shops with nothing more than a 100 gallon hot water heater and in floor Aqua Pex flex water pipe tubing. It is also used in new home construction. Running a 1500 watt hot water heater for the winter is much less than propane. Once the slab is warm, it is easy to keep it warm. Takes very little power. There is a company here in Dyersville Iowa called FarmTek that sells all that you need to set up a system. You would definitely want to put a radiant barrier down on the soil then the insulation, then the re wire, and fasten the tubing to the re wire with zip ties. I did it in a sunroom addition on my house.

Tom....
 
Pictures

Just remembered that I had pictures of the installation.
:D
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Hope this helps. Here is the link for Farm Tek:
http://www.farmtek.com/farm/supplies/home
:wave:
 
Way cool ( warm ? ). Thank you . . .

I've always heard about these systems but, pretty much, only seen them go in on high-end projects on TOH and Mike Holmes. Pretty neat to see the process from our point of veiw. Explains more also.
 
I have radiant heat in my Southern California home. One room has baseboad heater that warm the room with rising hot air. The rest of the rooms have radiant panels on the wall.

Radiant heat works by virtue of Infra Red rays. They go around corners, and warm the objects in the room, not just the air. Perfrect for a shop. For instance, in our bathroom, the radiator is actually a towel warming rack. The heat goes around the corner, and on this winter morning (46 degrees), the tile in the furthest nook of the shower is warm to the touch. That's what radiant heat does.

Best of all for a WW shop, you don't have drafts of air blowing around, taking sawdust with them.

Gary Curtis
 
Has anyone heard of Solid State Heating Corp. and their radiant ceiling heaters called ENERJOY Radiant Peopleheaters? http://www.sshcinc.com/BarNone2.htm

I would like to find someone that is using this type heater to hear what there opinion is about this heating system.


Yes, I have them in my workshop, and they work great. I've got 5 of the 2' x 8' panels on the ceilings of a 21' x 27' workshop. I leave the thermostat at about 50 degrees throughout the cold months here on the shoreline of Connecticut, and the heat costs me about $30/mo, which I consider quite reasonable.

Solid State sells the "Workshop" series of panels, which are simply the ones with blemishes or minor paint defects. They cost a lot less, and the defects are very minor. Call up the owner and talk to him about what you'd need for your shop.

FWIW, a good friend of mine here in CT uses them in his very large workshop and loves them. He's a pro who does lots of high-end home remodels in this area, so he knows his stuff. His workshop is bigger than my house, and it's filled with all kinds of European woodworking machinery.

I recommend these panels. They're easy to install and work very well.

Thomas
 
Thanks Thomas for your response. I have talked to Richard Watson twice on the phone at SSHC. He seems to be quite knowledgeable about radiant heat. The setup is expensive up front, but I guess the payback is in the long term with lower electric bills. My shop is about 24' x 28' with ten foot ceilings. He calculated that I need 6 of the 2' x 8' panels. I have read a couple of reviews about them and they said they were great for heating the workshop. How long have you had yours? Did you buy yours locally or were they shipped to you? Shipping to Colorado will cost me $215.00. They will have to be shipped as freight since they are so large.
 
How long have you had yours? Did you buy yours locally or were they shipped to you?

Joe -

I've had mine about 3 years. I live about 20 minutes away from Old Saybrook, so I was able to just pick them up, no shipping involved.

Initially, I had problems with the thermostat, because I thought I wanted a programmable model. They didn't supply the correct one for the contractor to install, and the programmable replacement that I went and got from them wasn't correct for the panels I was using, causing me some frustration. When everything was sorted out, I ended up with a very simple dial thermostat, which is sealed for workshop use, so no sawdust or whatever can get into the unit and possibly start a fire. I just leave it set to 50 degrees most of the time, and it works very well.

Others here have their opinions, so I won't say mine is the only valid one. I still maintain that these panels are extremely simple to install, they are only an inch thick, so they don't protrude on your shop space, they're quite efficient, and they don't pose any fire hazard. Hard to beat, IMO.

Thomas
 
Joe, I am coming in late on this discussion, and I probably can't be much help, but I have had radiant heat in my shop for the past eight years. It is radiant propane, and is supplied by a long tube running the length of the shop in the peak of the roof. It is a great heat, and I would not want to go to any other - unless of course, it was radiant also. I have the underground hose laid from my outdoor wood furnace to the shop, but have not come up with a good way to get the heat into the shop yet. But it will be radiant one way or another.

Bill
 
There are farmers here in Iowa who heat large insulated pole barn building/shops with nothing more than a 100 gallon hot water heater and in floor Aqua Pex flex water pipe tubing. It is also used in new home construction. Running a 1500 watt hot water heater for the winter is much less than propane. Once the slab is warm, it is easy to keep it warm. Takes very little power. There is a company here in Dyersville Iowa called FarmTek that sells all that you need to set up a system. You would definitely want to put a radiant barrier down on the soil then the insulation, then the re wire, and fasten the tubing to the re wire with zip ties. I did it in a sunroom addition on my house.

Tom....

Tom, you are making some pretty big assumptions on that one. What I mean is, it all depends on your electrical rates. Here in Maine we pay some of the highest electrical rates per KW in the country...something like 18 cents a KW. You could pay up to 4 bucks a gallon for propane and it would be cheaper then using electrical heat.

As with your theory on water heaters, that is another wolf in sheep's clothing. At first it looks inexpensive and efficient, but in reality it is not. When I did the radiant floor heat in my new addition I went through all the potential ways to heat my house. Ultimately a boiler is the best way to heat water. here is why.

With a hot water heater, you are using 180,000 btus to heat that water to 120º. With a boiler you use only 80,000 btus to heat the water and to any temp you want. It gets kind of hard to understand, but by using the right temp sensors in the concrete, outside and boiler water temp sensors, my controller can adjust the water temp flowing through the slab to heat my house at the LOWEST possible temp. Most days that is around 86º, but it goes up and down with the temp outside. Meaning if it gets colder out, the slab will lose more heat so it adjusts by increasing the water temp flowing through it. If the temp rises, it lowers the water temp running through it so you don't waste heat and btus on using more heat then what is needed.

So why is this so much better than a water heater...even a propane power water heater? Its because you are not overheating your water. Why use 120º water to heat your slab when only 86º is needed. That extra degree wise is wasteful.

Please don't think I am talking down to you here. It took me three separate conversations with my plumbing dealer to understand why a hot water heater was inefficient and overall more expensive then buying the boiler. The thing to understand is that its the whole system that makes everything effecient, not just the boiler. The controller, the plcs, the sensors and the flow valves all work in unison to ensure it uses the least amount of btus possible. Its the btus we pay for and that does not matter if its electric, propane, natural gas or wood. We buy btus.
 
Oh I forgot one important thing about using water heaters for heat sources...they are not rated by the manufacture for a radiant heat source, therefore in Maine anyway they are not allowed to be installed by licensed heating techs in that capacity.

In my application, since I was doing the install myself, I could get away with it, but licensed heating techs could not do one and be up to Maine code.

Its a moot point really as hot water is hot water, but it was one thing the plumbing supplier told me when I mentioned using a water heater for my place. Just thought I would pass this along just as a FYI in case someone is thinking about doing something like this.
 
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