Is radiant heating a good for cold climates with a cathedral ceiling and what lights are best?

[True Grit]

Radiant heat feels great, if you can afford to use it. I have never know anyone who had it who did not get a $600 heating bill. And where do you put it, on the second floor? I've always wanted to run thin water tubes, through the ceiling. Not enough weight to bring down the drywall, but enough so every time you use the tap, you get water that first cooled the ceiling. You'd never get *cold* water, from the tap, but you could probably survive by putting ice cubes in the water.

Woodstoves are great, but not for everyone. As much heat as you want and low cost. The flickering firelight is all romantical and stuff too. The modern ones use air from outside, to burn in the firebox, instead of sucking air from the room, into the burn area. To do that, you have to replace the air that went in, from somewhere. usually that air comes in, nice and cold, somewhere in the house. Like your dryer vent or the vent over the stove or back through the fresh air vents in the roof. Either way, someplace in your house is getting cold, every time you burn wood, in the fireplace or woodstove, without those new "outside-air" thingies.

Smaller, soapstone woodstoves are terrific for smaller areas. They only get about 400 degrees, instead of the 800+ that all-metal stoves will reach, but the soapstone stays that hot for about 8 hours, instead of cooling off immediately, after the fire goes out. And they are beautiful! You can get nice, quiet fans for them too, which make a huge difference, in how warm the rest of the house gets.

Soapstone stoves! Interesting. I had radiant heat in a 50 year old bungalow that worked great even though I would have to add water to the system regularly. We could never find if it had a leak with infra red. It was on a gas fired boiler and copper tubing was used. I loved that heating system and it was efficient but the house was only 1500 sq ft. I would never hesitate to put one in but I would also allow for duct work and a furnace for resale purposes or for 50 years down the road. Nitrous is right about the tap water - it really doesn't get very cold but that was a small price to pay for the beautifully warm floors.

 

[reveriereptile]

My husband is starting to worry about money cause of the place that sends his checks are having some problems that they need to fix so he doesn't know when he will get paid for the bills he sent out.

I'm wanting radiant heating really bad still but am trying to figure out the cost to install it ourselves. Anyone know of any good companies to order from that I can talk with for price quotes?