Hi all, I live in a 1968 all-radiant electric home in NE Indiana. We've got embedded electric ceiling heat, and I lost my first zone last year. Yesterday I finished installing a 220V ceiling overhead replacement panel and so far am very satisfied. I've got another all-electric home that I just purchased (currently it is on baseboards). We plan on using ceiling radiant as our primary heat, with updated baseboards for days when it is below zero. We're also installing a woodburning stove in a central location (the home is a 1950s modern ranch). Two questions: 1. Has anybody ever done a direct comparison of baseboard vs ceiling radiant? The manufacturer is claiming significant cost savings. 2. This home is on a crawlspace. In general, how important is it to fully insulate the floor of a home heated with radiant? PS: Excuse the lack of proper paragraphs - apparently this forum does not allow them.

Insulation is always important, regardless of heat source.

Money spent on insulation and air sealing will trump anything you spend on trying to upgrade electric resistance with more of same.

Well, we're installing new windows right away - and I'm hoping I can afford to have my stepson wiggle around the crawlspace this summer and insulate the floor.

The attic is an interesting problem - originally a flat-roofed 1950s style home, the previous owner spent a bunch of money installing a modern hip roof on the whole house/garage.

The ceiling is reasonably well insulated, but there is no insulation of any kind in the 'attic' (the space formed by the new roof). I don't want to lose 1200 square feet of open attic area for storage, so I'm going to noodle a while on how to add r-value but not lose precious storage space. Since we're moving from a 3000 square foot home to this tiny 2 bedroom I'm pretty sure the attic will fill up quickly.

I'm using Chrome Canary (the beta version of Chrome with plenty of bugs) so probably the browser is the issue.

Oddly though, in this reply the paragraph breaks appear with no problem. Hmmph.

Be careful not to place too much weight in a small space in the attic.  Most attics are not strong enough to stack heavy boxes.  One indication of too much weight is that the doors below may not close because the header has sagged.  Excessive weight can actually crack drywall over an opening.  Try to limit weight to less than 20 pounds per square foot.

The ceiling is reasonably well insulated,

Which is.....?