Forced air is dustier and can appear to be drier.

Radiant (depending on the type), can be more comfortable. You don't mention if it's infloor, peremiter, etc.

But for 13K, I'd go with regular forced air. It's what I grew up with, and 13K would buy a nice boat.

In floor radiant heat. A/C will be ducted. House will cost $850k so $13k isn't a huge increase in budget. I've heard in floor radiant is cheaper to operate also. We already have a boat. We do plan on an indoor room for an Endless Pool. That room will need to be heated warm as we are in northern latitudes. If we don't do in floor radiant, we will be using electric radiant in the master bathroom which will add $1800. So we're really looking at $11k more.

That's a good price. I'd do it.

I have radiant floor heat and love it. Husband says it's about the same cost to operate as forced hot air, but I like the way it feels, on my feet and in general. Wanted to comment on the Endless Pool plan -- have you checked out Swim-ex pools for your indoor pool room? They are pricier, but I think a better product. I think I'd trade the radiant floor for the better pool; guess it depends on how much you will use the pool.

This would be nat gas fired either way. Forced hot air or in floor radiant. I need to learn more about zones. Much of the house will not need to be heated full time. The hot air default is 3 zones. Not sure how many zones radiant would offer.

If we don't do radiant, we will at least do electric radiant in the master bath. Electric works well, but is not as efficient.

We are building in the Rockies in an area where central air is not needed. Our plan is to use whole house hydronic radiant with Warmboard subfloor. Except for the time required to change temperatures and the added initial cost, it seems superior in comfort and is healthier for those in the family with allergies. Both out architect and our son-in-law, who works with this daily highly recommend it.

The price you were quoted to upgrade to hydronic in-floor heat is much lower than we are paying to do the same. Perhaps interview the in-floor sub and assess his comfort level with the install. If he checks out go for it. You won't miss the dustier forced air option. It is also nice not to have the bulky ducting materials in drop down valances in basement ceilings, closets, etc. We combined hydronic in-floor heat with high velocity AC. The high velocity AC uses 4 inches flex duct to deliver the cooling room to room. We were able to fit it inside our i-joists so we did not have to have bulky duct work for the AC either.

Carol

We ended up with 'some of each'. The HVAC guy on our build didn't allow for enough supply in north-facing rooms, so we added a small boiler and hydronic under the floor in those rooms (one story house w/basement).

The whole house has natural gas fired forced air heat and A/C. The furnaces have flow-through humidifiers, delivering moisture-conditioned air throughout the house, and the north rooms also have the *most comfortable* radiant heating. I would not like to do without those humidifiers -- and they don't build mold due to the flow-through feature.

I would like to stop using the *expensive* electric in-floor heating in our MBA and extend the hydronic there -- under the whole room, including the shower. Gas is cheaper than electricity in my area (north of Chicago).

BTW, a simpleton can install the tubing for hydronic. It's a drudge job. You only need an expert to plumb the connection to a boiler. I'm wondering why I have bids of $4K to add my MBA (16 X 12) to the existing boiler, but then, a 5K sq ft home here runs over $2M.

We're building a 5,000 sq ft ICF with concrete floors on every floor (2 + basement) and geothermal so I thought we were going to be a shoe in for in-floor radiant heat. After reading a bit about it I decided to go with forced air.

From what I gather, in floor radiant is very comfortable since it warms the floor and objects close to the floor using radiant energy rather than air convection. One of the issues I had with in floor radiant is that, if you like to use set back temperatures during the winter (colder at night or when the house is unoccupied) it takes longer for the system to reach the desired temp since the thermal mass of the floor needs to elevate first. As you already mentioned, you would need two delivery systems for heating and cooling so that was another deciding factor for us.

As I said, we decided to go with forced air but three zones on the first floor, four zones on the second, and electric in floor for the master bath.

Chisue, I'd say 4K is probably not a bad bid. It is more expensive to retrofit than to install originally and it isn't quite as simple as just running some pipe under your existing floor. I don't see that the value of a 5K home in your neighborhood has much of impact on the conversation. From experience, the cost difference in many home retrofits and repairs in a high value RE value area, in the range you mention, and another in a low cost area, is not that much except when transportation costs of materials is at issue. In fact some services and inputs are more expensive in our lower home value area than in our higher value area, simply because more local trades that do higher end type installs are available and competing for work. From our experience we have to often hire someone from the nearby city --45 miles away -- to do the work and that does come at an up charge, understandably. There is also the fact that smaller jobs also cost proportionately more than larger jobs anywhere.

It might help if you don't put down the trades as simpletons. If don't like the bid or can't afford that price, why don't you just go hire someone off the streets to install the tubing, direct the job yourself and just ask a master plumber to make a call to hook it up. LOL. Be sure to pull the correct building permit if ine is required -- it often is for additions to mechanical and plumbing systems.

mojomom -- There is little skill needed to affix purpose-made tubing in loops under our bathroom floor. It's not a fun job, lying on your back and reaching up, but there is a deep crawlspace, clean and lighted. In fact, the person our GC employed to do the original work IS 'a simpleton' -- a laborer with limited IQ that he uses for just such tasks. My point is that the majority of the time involved is dumb labor and should not be billed at a qualified tradesman's rates. The Tradesman would plumb the hoses to the boiler, ten feet away in our unfinished basement. I can't see $4K for 200 sq ft.

I was exclaiming over the difference in labor rates for the OP's area and mine. He could do 5K sq. ft. of house with hydronic *and* A/C for only $13K. I'd pay ten times as much -- no A/C, and I already have the boiler. It seems to me that either his quote is unrealistic, or mine is.

• I think you misread the OP -- $13,000 was the cost of the upgrade -- it cost 13,000 MORE "an additional" to do hydronic radiant, not 13,000 for the entire heating and air systems -- that would be nuts anywhere for a 5,000 sq. ft house.

I have radiant and love it. We poured gypcrete on the second and third floors for it though that's not strictly required. It's actually also a bit more efficient than most forced air systems.

I grew up with radiant heat. It is so nice and quiet! I'm now 60 and still annoyed every time I'm in a room where forced air heat goes on.

In my radiant floor heating blog I make some contrarian views to points in this thread like radiant floors are less comfortable and they are an expensive redundancy for any homes requiring AC to stay comfortable. I do however, plan on installing a small amount of radiant in my personal home's future renovation.

Most of people's experiences are based on leaky, inefficient building envelopes. When you build to international level code performance as a minimum, energy requirements get small and are handled with relatively tiny amounts of air-flow from forced-air systems. With professional design and installation, you may barely realize a forced-air system is running.

As the industry begins to implement variable speed heat pump equipment, this argument will strengthen and I recommend people put any extra costs of radiant into such upgrades if available.

For those that think ducts equal bad air quality, I would ask how you plan on supplying outdoor-air in the amounts called for by international codes. Outdoor-air ventilation is the primary way of achieving better indoor-air quality and the best systems usually rely on some amount of ductwork.

We have forced air (natural gas) in our current (97 year old) house and hydronic floors (electric as there is no gas available and we didn't want to add propane) in the new house. The only pro I can come up with for forced air is the relatively short response time.

I have to say, though, that I thought the hydronic floor would feel warmer underfoot than it does. Because the house is so well insulated, the air temp and the floor temp are pretty much the same. We do have some vents that come on to bring in fresh air for so many minutes every so many hours, according to code.

In our old house, we do have electric wire heating under the bathroom tile upstairs. It does feel warm underfoot, which is nice. It is on a timer set to come on for a short time in the AM and again at bedtime.

Influenced by climate. I once designed buildings in CO where the temperature change when the sun rose or set required forced air heating.

In any case the in-floor heat should be hydronic which would be fed by a boiler that could also feed baseboard and/or air handlers.

Don't use a contractor that is not familiar with installing radiant heat! I did that in an addition, though I didn't know it at the time, and then had to pay to have it redone a few years later. And I love the radiant heat in the few rooms I have it, in WNY.