Radiant (Android) !FULL!

I have a house with radiant heat in the ceiling upstairs and in the floor downstairs. If you put in a small ceiling fan in the upstairs rooms, even if you run it at the lowest speed, you will be amazed at how much warmer the room gets. It pushes all that warm air from the ceiling down to the lower part of the room. You could even use a fan on the floor and have it blowing up to circulate the air in the room.

Radiant (Android)

An engineer friend of mine told me not to use setback thermostats with radiant heat. The whole house, he says, acts as a heat-sink and it if it cools down it actually takes more energy to heat it back up than it does to keep it a constant temperature.

My next door neighbor has older radiant heat in the ceiling of their 2 story. Costs $600-700 a month to heat in the mild California winter. My forced air gas (96% efficient) run a max of $150 a month, usually in the $90 range.Point is, you need to take in account how expensive power is versus natural gas when considering radiant. In southern California, power is pricy, paying off all those old nukes.

In reply to GT_Tecolotecreek:Many radiant heat systems are actually hydronic, with the water heated by a boiler or hot water heater that is part of your existing systems (which in turn can be based on natural gas, oil or electricity). All-electric radiant heat is cheaper and easier to install, but is typically more expensive in the long run as you note. 041b061a72