After the closet I tore into the office, found 3 different places the back door was at one time or another, peeled the mortar off the ceiling and left the lathe as its holding up 10” of cellulose under the flat roof. Screwed 2” wide strips of 1/2” plywood over the lathe to keep it tight, fastened 1” polystyrene foam faced insulation to the plywood then screwed 2x4’s over the insulation. Ran a string several different ways, left the 2X’s just snug in some places and cranked em right into the polystyrene in others to take some of the humps and dips out of the ceiling. Regular ole drywall over the 2x’s then, sealed around the perimeter during this to end up with a double dead airspace in the ceiling to add to insulation value. Our bedroom is on the other side of the west office wall and never had a duct to it as it has the fieldstone walls under it.
So…I tried something nobody could tell me if it would work or not, basically insulated three stud bays with foil insulation, then coiled up a minimun of 75’ of 1/2” pex in each one like a giant slinky, cut in a 4”x10” register top and bottom of each stud bay, more insulation to close it off then sheetmetal over each one to prevent ever running a screw into it. Also shimmed the new drywall out 3/4” of a inch so if I had to still could use drywall anchors to hang something. A room that used to have two outlets, now has twelve. Also has ethernet on each wall as well as well as phone jacks. Wasn’t a big deal to add another heat zone as I already have the laundry room in the basement as its own zone with baseboard then the bathroom is setup as another with a kickspace heater. Another zone valve and a grundfos Alpha pump handily does all three zones or ramps down for 2 or 1. Takes a 14x16 room from 64 to 71 in roughly 84 minutes.
Always just used to sleep with the bedroom door open in the winter and it stayed decent enough, had a heated mattress pad with dual controls in case the wife ever got cold. It stayed decent enough even a few winters ago when we set new record lows. However after seeing a video on how it's the fumes that kill in a fire and not the actual fire anymore I wanted to get some kind of heat in that room. People who sleep with bedroom doors shut have a LOT more time to get out before succumbing to fumes.
The wifey is happy happy happy with the results, especially since the thermostat is on her side and being a hybrid radiant/convection heat its completely silent other than the click of the thermostat.
Upstairs rooms will all be getting proper wall heat when I redo those.
Wall heat on the Cheap by Marty Lappin, on Flickr
Wall heat on the Cheap by Marty Lappin, on Flickr
Wall heat on the Cheap by Marty Lappin, on Flickr
Had to attack a beam at another angle, this wasn’t long enough to get thru. Was seriously going thru batteries faster than I could charge em.
Wall heat on the Cheap by Marty Lappin, on Flickr
Office remodel by Marty Lappin, on Flickr