Heating rooms with Raked Ceilings and Voids

kfc · Nov 06, 2007 12:44 am

Hi All,

I am designing a home that has a raked ceiling living area that looks up through a void to a 1st storey living area also with raked ceilings, it looks great on paper by my concerns are to do with heating and cooling, will I have issues with this?

Thanks for any help.

ausdesign · Nov 06, 2007 7:45 am

i would imagine heating will be the greater hurdle.
Good strong and large ceiling fans will help to force the rising heat back down to the lower level. Good levels of bulk insulation to walls and ceilings and good window placement as you would incorporate with any efficient design will be more critical. Good cross flow ventilation to let the doctor in will be an asset in summer to cool the home of an evening.

Yak_Chat · Nov 06, 2007 12:17 pm

Yes it does create an issue kfc.

My place has raked to roof ceilings with 2 inches of fibreglass rockwool and sisalation under the tile, which traps the heat inside the house at least, but the heat does run along the ceiling and up the stairwell into the upper section.
As Ausdesign says - good in sumemr - which it is , but winter it is a lot warmer upstairs than down.
Ways around it are to use offset fans - (not centrered in the room) so they draw the air down and push it back into the room away from the void.

Another way is to use a heat transfer system that draws from the upper raked to roof ceiling, and pump it back down stairs. But be careful of creating a continous draft via this system.

Other ways are to put a blocking wall of say 3 or 4 feet on the edge of the void, which then traps the air downstairs more - as and where you need it in winter, and put vents in this wall to allow the air to flow up and out in summer.

Steve