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Electric Heat Sheetrock

61K views 36 replies 29 participants last post by  tjjohnson3 
#1 ·
Is anybody here old enough to remember electric heat sheetrock? We had one particular contractor that put it in all of his houses. The sheets had a
"pigtail" that you pitched up over the ceiling joists and the electrician wired
them later. All of the heat was in the ceiling. They had full heat sheets, half heat sheets, and 1/3 heat sheets. You received a plan on which sheets went where. The remainder of sheets were 5/8 firecode. (typical houses in those days were all 1/2" regular walls and ceilings) It was a really clean even radiant heat. Only drawback was you still had to put in an air conditioning system. Sheets were marked so you didn't nail thru the wires. Just Curious
 
#37 ·
I moved into my then new Seattle home in 1979. It had electric ceiling heating with a thermostat in every room. I still live there and have had zero problems with it. My only change was to programmable thermostats about 15 years ago. It was an easy job I did myself for about $60 per thermostat. In Seattle air conditioning is not a problem except for about 5 to 10 days in a bad year.
 
#5 ·
I understood that it was extremely reliable. My uncle's house house had it and for 35 years I know they didn't have any problems with it. You had a different thermostat for
each room. It also was a very even heat. We had a separate price for the ceiling board
since it did take more time. Back then a normal house was all 1/2" thick 12' length board. There wasn't 6 different types and lengths of board in a house. The average house was a FHA house with 90 or so sheets. Everything was 8' and nothing wrapped. Everything was nail on. Occasionally it would be glued.
 
#8 ·
Hot rock lives!

I just purchased a home with a mystery power drain. Upon checking the beaker box discovered beaker labeled "hot rock.". This is what led me to find out I have an electric heater in my Sheetrock. This was a foreclosed home so I had no idea, I had electric heat until I got my electric bill. Ouch!!!

Does anyone know exactly what it is really called? Who makes it? What are the dangers if you accidentally drill into it? Actually any info would be helpful.
 
#9 ·
I just purchased a home with a mystery power drain. Upon checking the beaker box discovered beaker labeled "hot rock.". This is what led me to find out I have an electric heater in my Sheetrock. This was a foreclosed home so I had no idea, I had electric heat until I got my electric bill. Ouch!!!

Does anyone know exactly what it is really called? Who makes it? What are the dangers if you accidentally drill into it? Actually any info would be helpful.
Is it still in working condition or is it just a power drain.
 
#11 ·
It still lives!

Yes,it works we had it turned on accidentally, we thought the thermostat went with the propane heater. Not knowing it was in the ceiling we drilled two holes to hang a light. Oops still working but how do we determine if it is damaged now? How do we figure out where the wire grid is located? Now that we know it is there, we may want to use it. This is on open ceiling without an attic, so we can,t see how it is attached to power. We also would like to hang speakers for our home theater system, so this could pose problem.
 
#14 ·
Yes,it works we had it turned on accidentally, we thought the thermostat went with the propane heater. Not knowing it was in the ceiling we drilled two holes to hang a light. Oops still working but how do we determine if it is damaged now? How do we figure out where the wire grid is located? Now that we know it is there, we may want to use it. This is on open ceiling without an attic, so we can,t see how it is attached to power. We also would like to hang speakers for our home theater system, so this could pose problem.
Easiest solution I can think of is to turn it on, let it heat up, and then feel the board. I would imagine that where the elements are would be warmer than the rest of the ceiling. Can you hang the speakers from the wall instead?
 
#15 ·
Yeah, I remember it from back in the early 80's. You don't see it any more because nobody can afford to heat with electric today and it's a major PITA to cut holes in it if you are adding lights for instance. There were lines printed on it to tell you where to screw or cut holes but all that is gone once it's painted. A lot of guys didn't even know it was being used and there is no easy way to tell. If the heat wire in the board is cut the rest of the sheet won't heat and there is no way to repair it. The whole sheet must be replaced.
 
#20 ·
The problems with heat pumps are the up front cost is high, and in my neck of the woods they don't produce enough heat in the winter by themselves, they need some sort of supplemental heat. What you use is up to you. Some use an electric coil, some use a gas or oil burner.

I want to put one in my place, but I can't swallow the $15,000 I was quoted.:censored:
 
#27 ·
I just bought a house that has it working in each room, don't use it as the previous owners added 95% efficient gas furnace. Still kind of cool, I could add a little heat in a room if I wanted. Never put this up when building houses, but electricity use to be cheap and people did use it. Kind of like zone heating. BTW this house was built in 1967.

Wish I could see the marks for where the wires are, want to add some lights. Doubt I will ever turn it on so I could just start cutting and fill holes where the thermostats are in each room, just hate to take and destroying something still working. Taking it off would free up a lot of breakers.
 
#29 ·
Is anybody here old enough to remember electric heat sheetrock? We had one particular contractor that put it in all of his houses. The sheets had a
"pigtail" that you pitched up over the ceiling joists and the electrician wired
them later. All of the heat was in the ceiling. They had full heat sheets, half heat sheets, and 1/3 heat sheets. You received a plan on which sheets went where. The remainder of sheets were 5/8 firecode. (typical houses in those days were all 1/2" regular walls and ceilings) It was a really clean even radiant heat. Only drawback was you still had to put in an air conditioning system. Sheets were marked so you didn't nail thru the wires. Just Curious
That electric radiant stuff was crapola. Cracked all of the ceiling joints due to expansion and contraction. It was around for a couple of years in the early 1980's. Then there were mylar pads installed to the framing beneath the sheetrock. Very expensive heat to use, but cheap to install. Mostly used in condos. Hot water radiant heat seems to be much better.
 
#31 ·
Sorry to bump such an old thread. I am looking at a small house that has this for heat. My question is...would you buy it? It is working currently, but I probably would switch to a different heat source. How expensive would this be to replace. From your knowledge would you walk away because of this kind of heating?
 
#33 ·
In 1974 I had the guy that invented it install it in my house. It was radiant and heated objects so your couch chairs whatever were warm like sun shining on it. I loved it. The guy sold patent to Domtar sheet rock and they put it inside sheet rock. He had a skill saw with a vacuum attached and it tucked the wire into the slot then you plastered over it. Depending on how much heat you wanted was determined by breaker and wire size
 
#34 ·
Yes we have this in our 1981 house. We used a thermal camera to see the panels!!! I wanted to put in recessed lighting but it’s a no go now! I was wondering why this house didn’t have any ceiling lighting!!! They are over the whole ceiling!!! Ugh! I live in Montana and out winter electric bill is $800 a month!!! We put a wood stove in this year and don’t plan on using the radiant heat. But I don’t want to disable it for the future or secondary heat source. We were putting a new wall in and cut some sheet rock and realized it is actually inside (the middle) of the drywall!!! What a weird thing. Having an electrician look at it now to see if we can disable just one sheet?
 
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