Ceiling mounted radiator

Is this a new take on retro fit under floor heating?...

hah.

I'm guessing the designer skipped the laws of thermo-dynanics whilst at .. . some wierd college cult?

possibly Chilled Beams... i'll let you look them up 🙂

These?

Unit heaters

Didn't look like any of the chilled beams that come up on image search. These were solid and flat (6ft x 2ft) with in/out pipes at one end. Not saying you're wrong though.

@scruffy nope not that either. Look up radiant ceiling panels and you'll get an idea of what they look like. Just don't get the pipework.

@scruffy nope not that either. Look up radiant ceiling panels and you’ll get an idea of what they look like. Just don’t get the pipework.

Cables in round metal conduit because the architect liked the way it looks "industrial"?

Cables in round metal conduit because the architect liked the way it looks “industrial”?

Definitely plumbed.

These are radiant panels. And they look different to radiators as they work by radiation (unlike ‘radiators’ which are mostly convective).

Usually employed where there is insufficient wall space (think classrooms such as HE, CDT & Science) or high ceiling height (think warehouse or gym/assembly hall). For them to work the best they need to be ‘directed’ at the occupants. You don’t mount them on (high) ceilings as the radiation dissipates before it ‘hits’ the occupants. Usually just high enough to be out of the way in those circumstances (i.e. just above the racking/crane tracking in warehouses)…

Unsurprisingly you can pipe them up similar to radiators (although they only really work with a high temperature differential, what with heat flow flowing from the hot to the cold body). That’s why they’ll look like pipes. You don’t ask an architect to design it though, you’ll want a (HVAC design) Engineer for that…

Been around as long as I’ve been in the industry (40 years).

Quite common in facilities I've worked in where the clients are mad and rip anything off the walls including plug sockets, pipework or lightswitches. Always a fun day working there.

What @metalheart said. In a previous life I got a customer some from these people https://www.spc-hvac.co.uk/product-category/radiant-heating-cooling-panels/

Seen something similar in sports halls. I think theyre called radiant panels.

As for radiators, they really heat the room through convection. So should be called convectors?

Edit: Beaten to it!

My last job had some old buildings that had regular radiators that were ceiling mounted. It was pyschiatric hospital in the past so I guessed they were up there so the patients couldn't hurt themselves.

Back in the olden days when I was a boy and before central heating we had a ceiling light in the bathroom which also had an electric heater element around the bulb. They were quite a common setup.

One of these? Haven't seen once for years.

That's the one.

slowoldman
Full Member

Back in the olden days when I was a boy and before central heating we had a ceiling light in the bathroom which also had an electric heater element around the bulb. They were quite a common setup.

Those work quite well as the element gets incredibly hot and kicks out tonnes of IR. How does this work with a wet system?

I used to work in an art gallery where it’s obviously important to keep the walls uncluttered so there were electric radiant heaters hidden in the ceiling.

There’s something quite oppressive about radiant heat coming from directly overhead

I knew I could rely on the stw pool. Every day a school day and all that. Doesn't look like I'll be fitting them in my extension then.

Those work quite well as the element gets incredibly hot and kicks out tonnes of IR. How does this work with a wet system?

If you mean in a bathroom, it worked fine. Of course that was the 60s and I don't know how running an electric radiator off the lighting circuit in a bathroom would go down now.