Thanks, I will take a look at lowes. I'm still on the fence about an electric or water system. I assume the water system would be cheaper to operate (gas water heater, but it's an older model, 92) I was looking at menards the other day at water systems and for a 2 zone 1000 sq ft system was similiar price to an electric kit. This isn't counting lumber or tubing costs though, I think the water system would end up more expensive to install but may be cheaper to operate? Looking for any advice from the "pros" or at least someone who has put in either type of system. Thanks in advance

If I could add one thing here, as a person who lives in a house with electric baseboard heat: I have found that electric baseboard heaters foster high heat loss, perhaps because they excessively heat the wall above the heater, causing more rapid heat loas to the outdoors. (If my memory of high school science and "Delta T" is accurate.) In addition, following standard HVAC practice they're often placed below windows, further accelerating heat loss for the same reason. Realizing that all electric resistance heat is the same 100 percent efficient (but not cheap, owing to high electric rates compared to other energy sources) this is the only way I can account for the fact that using plug-in electric space heaters (generally fan-forced units) in the house will cause the rooms to be warmer for less energy cost. If this were my house I'd look at the fan-forced electric wall-mount heaters. For one thing they're way faster to warm a room than baseboard, and they're safer than infrared, which operate by design at high temperatures. Plus, putting a infrared heater into a wall kind of defeats its purpose: As they are used to heat objects and people directly, infrared heaters are ideally portable units that you can point in the direction where heat is desired. Having said that, I put an infrared heater in the wall of my bathroom, but that's a small room and there aren't many places you can be. But tell you what, I'd be scared of it in a rental house because if you'd leave a towel or something draped in front of it, that infrared heater could start a fire in no time. Fan-forced wall heaters have limit switches that will shut them off if they're covered. Also, to reply to the above, "quartz technology" would be meaningless in an electric furnace. If you embed the units inside an electric furnace where they're not physically exposed to the people and objects you want to heat, you're just turning them into conventional heating elements that heat air by forced convection. Quartz elements are simply designed to operate at a higher temperature so a higher share of their heat can be given off as radiation. You still get one total watt of heat for every watt of electricity you run through it - it's just that you can direct that watt straight at people and feel warm far sooner, as you have pointed out. By the way this is the fallacy of those costly $200+ heaters that look like wooden boxes. If you stick any kind of element in that heater, or use light bulbs, quartz tubes or whatever, you get the same amount of heat, as any radiation effect of whatever element you use is simply absorbed by the box itself and then convected to the room air the same as any $15 heater from a discount store. Just another option to consider.

In the 90’s, portable ceramic heaters were “high tech” and popular at the old cabin. I have two of those, as room heaters... I am planning to buy an Envi this fall for next winter. I have the old ceramics, but want to try something new. I am in CA, electricity is expensive. I want something to “keep the chill off” vs heating. I just wear a sweater.

Thanks so much everyone for weighing in. I definitely think LVP might be the winner. I realize it doesn't conduct the heat as well as tile but maybe that's not a big deal. I think a wood look would be my preference, maybe with a couple area rugs to define spaces within the wide open rec room, make it feel cozier and provide extra cushioning for kids. I grew up with a basement with wall-to-wall carpeting and my sister and I did a lot of roughhousing down there (mostly pretty safely, although once she accidentally broke a friends' collar bone with a wrestling move!) so I was just picturing all that on a tile floor and cringing.