Ceiling heating in attic apartment

Hello everyone,

we are currently buying a penthouse apartment, and I am considering installing a heating and cooling ceiling there, which is intended to heat/cool with a heat pump in the future. Temporarily, it will only heat with the existing gas boiler...

There seem to be dozens of systems/manufacturers, has anyone here had good/bad experiences with one manufacturer or another and can share experiences? Also regarding help with planning and whether a ceiling heating system makes sense at all? Unfortunately, due to lack of time, we currently cannot contribute much in terms of personal effort.

Thanks for any tips!

Hello Alchemist, we had the Uponor Renovis installed in our ground floor. Since the house is currently still a construction site, we have only been able to gather initial experiences and so far find the warmth very pleasant and even. However, we can only make a direct comparison to underfloor heating after the next winter.

We installed our ceiling heating without the option for cooling, even though that would have been theoretically possible. Since we don’t need it, we saved the money.

Basically, hanging the ceiling down takes about 10cm. Even then, the distance between the floor and the ceiling heating should be greater than 2.30m, otherwise the heat strikes too much on the head. Since the floor area is often significantly larger than the ceiling due to the sloping roof, the sloping roof may also need to be fitted with elements. They are somewhat narrower there, but the distance to the head is also reduced again, which is why we did not install them in our attic. But of course, that depends entirely on your structural conditions.

Otherwise, the water-based ceiling heating is rather more expensive, but since you can save the (expensive) screed, it ultimately came out to about the same price for us.

Best regards

Thank you for every tip!

Welcome. You have found the way – and have already received a user reply.

I would especially pay attention to the ceiling height. If you already have sloped ceilings in the attic, 10 cm of buildup can quickly become a problem, especially if it goes below 2.30 m. Then it can really become uncomfortable because the heat comes pretty much directly "from above."

Regarding cooling: If you want to work with a heat pump, the system should definitely be designed for it. Some manufacturers support passive cooling well, others do not – it’s worth taking a close look at the technical data. It’s best to plan with someone who really knows the interaction between heat pump and surface heating.