Radiant heating

If anyone in the Northeast has radiant heat in their home (the kind where coils of tubes with hot water run under the floor), I would like to hear from you. I may be moving to the Northeast and possibly building a home. We have seen this kind of heating on TV, but we know no one who has ever had it. If you have it, are you satisfied with it? Just tell me all you can about it - I would be very appreciative! Linda

My oldest daughter and her hubby put it in their home on Cayuga Lake in Aurora, NY(cold,cold, cold spot) and they love it. The only drawback I see is that you can't have carpeting on the floors. They have all ceramic tile which is OK because it is never cold anyway. The heat is perfectly distributed, of course, and completely out of sight and silent. If you add a second story then conventional radiators or tubes fastened tightly beneath the upper floors are needed.

My brother has electric heat pads under his floor in his new house. No basement, floor is 7" of sand with 4" of concrete over it. There are 97 pads under the sand. His house is 3700 sq ft. They have quarry tile in the living areas, a large area of carpet in the middle of the living room. All bedrooms are carpeted. He said the cost per month is slightly higher than what the REA said it would be. (It is hooked to an off-peak meter.)
We stayed over night at their house once. Sure is toasty warm on the feet. Also there are no hot & cold spots in the house.
They also have a large wood fireplace for extra cold times.
This is located in Brainerd, MN, which can get down to -40º easily. Long winter there with lots of below zero temps.
They really like it!
Bernie

Thanks Bernie and Kiki'sdad! You have really helped with the info you've given me. I hope to hear from a few more people who live in the "cold" zone. It's a big decision to make and the more info I get the better!!

OK let me modify what I posted a little for the sake of accuracy. Actually a carpet such as an area rug or smaller pieces around here and there work OK but wall to wall with thick pads would not because of the insulation between the living space and the heat source. Electric heat pads are much hotter than water in pipes (or tubes or whatever conduit is used) but electric heat in NY state will have your heat bills matching or exceeding your mortgage payments and is simply not an option for those of us who have not yet won the lottery. I'm not sure about the electric rates in other Northeastern states but one should check.

FYI , here in my part of NY Electric is basicly 13 cents a KW now ..

Since you stated you were building a house , you could look into different options
of heating the water for the heated flooring .... winter time solar prolly wont cut it,
to many overcast days when you need it the most.

I was just reading some place last week about compost piles ... or a big pile
of sawdust (woodchips) it gets really hot in them things and you can get
upto 100F hot water from placing tubing in the compost pile.