What is the best to locate a break in the resistance wire
used in electric ceiling heat. About 2 years ago, I had an
electrician fix a break. He used a non-contact voltage probe
and located the break in about 10 minutes. He jumpered the
wires and effectively removed one wire loop.

I purchased the same type of probe and I came across several
small ceiling areas where the probe stops blinking. I fairly
sure that I have just one break and do not want to cut several
holes in the ceiling to locate the actual break. I also want
to jumper just the actual break and not remove a loop like
the electrician did. I believe that you can only shorted the
resistance wire by so much before you change the overall
resistance of the heating circuit.

Any suggestion will be welcome...
John

Cable ceiling heat is most commonly sandwiched between two pieces
of dryall. Cables ceiling heat normally have a theromstat in the
room with the heating bank. Cables ceiling heat normally comes
out of the thermostat then up to the ceiling and then along the
corner of the ceiling to the nearest oppisite wall corner then
the cable ceiling heat cable is stapled to the top layer of
dryall in a known pattern to facilitate mounting the second layer
of drywall and about 6" away from the corners where the walls and
ceiling meet all the way around the room and also leaving a
circle in the center of the room for any future light fixture
designed to be added in the ceiling. Then the end of this cable
ceiling heat pattern is ended in the oppisite side of the room
and on the same wall as the thermostat and ran back along that
thermostat wall to the thermostat to make the complete loop.

Keeping this pattern in mind you should be able to take your
ticker and trace the energised wire from the thermostat to the
ceiling then along the thermo wall to the nearest side wall, then
trace the wire in a back and forth pattern in a straight line
from the thermostat wall to the oppisite wall and make a 8" move
sideways again following the ticking and back the same way you
came. You should follow this pattern until you hit a space where
the ticker stops ticking and fades. Make a mark where the ticker
first starts to fade. Then go back to the thermostat and trace up
the wall and going the oppisite way along the thermostat wall to
the oppisite corner you originally stated. Then again trace this
wire carefully back and forth along the wire going back and forth
and moving over about the 8" to the return loop and continue
until you hear the ticker fade. Mark this spot where the ticker
first fades. Step back and look where the two marks are on the
ceiling picturing in you mind the pattern of the ceiling heat
cable. If you picture only a few inches then you have one break
in the cable cieling heat. If you picture a short in distance
making the distance in a few feet then you have two breaks in
your wire. If you have a long distance of ceiling heat cable such
as an entire loop or more that is dead you may have even more
breaks in this room. I would not make a repair jump more that a
half loop or so. I would find the numerous breaks.

Now before we go further we need to consider that if you have a
lot of missing energized heating cable then you probably have
several breaks in this cable ceiling heat. If this is true
consider the life expectancy and age of this cable ceiling heat.
Is it really worth reparing while expecting a strong possiblity
of future breaks happening soon? Kind of like an old car, is this
cable ceiling heat worth repaing if we have so many breaks? You
must make this decision before you proceed to make repairs. If
you decide to say yes and make the repairs.

Turn off you power. Go to where the breaks were identified and
shove a screw driver through the drywall into the attic area so
you can find the point of break in the attic. Then go into the
attic and dig out the upper drywall until you expose the break.
Then repair the break by using wire and tape etc. Then place a
small piece of drywall over that repair making the sandwich of
drywall again and then turn on your power and take your ticker in
that room and see if it ticks now continues on past that break.
If so then follow that heat cable again. If you follow that tick
to the point on the ceiling where the second pencil mark was
placed you have repaird all the breaks and you should have a
working heating system again. If you find the ticker to fade
again then again make the repair as discribed above. Then again
see if the ticker continues on until you hit that second pencil
mark that you made.

Rememeber that if takes a lot of patience to learn to accurately
use a ticker tracer. Knowing the original pattern that if usually
installed as I discribed above should help you learn a technic in
using this ticker tracer to easily locate and repair the breaks
in your cable ceiling heat. Just remember all mechanicals that
create heat can wear out in time to a point that replacing
instead of repairing is the better option. I am not trying to
talk you into or out of something. Just trying to get you to
think in a constructive and programmed manner keeping in mind
your best options. Hopefully others will pipe in and give you
better suggestions or other ideas to help you too. Let us know
how you come out.

Hope this helps

Wg

Thanks for your suggestions WG. I will go over them and will
comment if I do not understand any part of them. If at all
possible, I want to retain the ceiling heat. This is only the
second break and both occurred in the living room. I suspose
it is because it is the largest room and the ceiling may sag
just enough to cause the breaks.
I find ceiling heat to be very economical. It only cost me
about $450 a year for heating.
I even thought about having resistance wire attached to the
current ceiling, disconnecting the old wire, and then put
another layer of wallboard over the new wire. This would
give me about another 25 years of service.
Thanks...
John

I've not much that could possibly be added to Warrens response. I
would only further that other proximal loads be turned off, so as
to minimize false readings per other circuitry.

Thanks Wirenuts, I spaced that suggestion. You are right about
false readings if you don't

Wg

John, Wg is on to something when asking the question of how many
repairs will you do or pay for before deciding that an old car is
no longer worth sinking money & time into and that it's time fora
a new one.  In a previous life I performed electrical maintenance
for a 300 unit apartment complex which had heat system like
yours.  I found may breaks over time using the same method as
your electrician used.  I was very successful at finding breaks,
but there were a few units where trashing the ceiling to repair
numerous breaks in a single room/loop was beyond practical.  I
disconnected the resistive wire circuitry from the thermostat,
sliced the sheetrock open from the thermostat down to the
baseboard and installed a baseboard heater.  Used the same
thermostat and circuit conductors from breaker to the
thermostat.  It might be time to abandon the resistive wiring in
the ceiling and go with a heat unit that can be more easily
accessed for future servicing.  Baseboard heating units are
fairly inexpensive and might be worth considering.  Hope that
helps.

Juice

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