<h4 class="dechead">On One Hand: No Energy Is Lost

With heated floors, since the heat goes directly to the floor, and from the floor to the occupants of the home, no energy is lost in ducts or by blowing air. Thermosoftinternational.com estimates that this could result in a 30 to 45 percent savings on your energy bill.

On the Other: Installation Is Expensive

Saving energy and heating costs via heated floors requires a lot of work and installation costs in older homes. Installation involves tearing up the floors, installing the radiant heating system and then replacing the floors. Use in new-home construction is a bit less expensive, as the heating system can be put in prior to floor installation.

Bottom Line

While radiant heat systems in the floor are energy efficient, installing one in an older home is a long-term investment that won't show immediate savings because of the initial costs. Use in new-home construction will show more immediate savings.

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Thermosoftinternational.com: Enjoy the Luxury of Energy Saving Warm Floors

I love, love, love heated floors for multiple reasons. 1) The flywheel effect 2)Heat emanating from (literally) the coolest location. 3)Quiet, ductless, invisible efficient The Flywheel Effect: Let me start with a critique of forced air. This type of heat delivers heated air to the room, secondarily heating the physical things in the room. Open a window or door for a brief moment and you will feel a chill. In contrast to this, mass storage of heat in the floor, in the room itself will be unfazed by an open window for fresh air or a momentary opening of a door to the outside. That mass, once heated will take a lot to drop its core temperature. Do any of you remember the old cast-Iron radiators under each window. Large diameter pipes,(that will deliver heat where you want it faster with greater ease( a mass of cast iron metal is unfazed by that open window and the cold air being pulled up through natural convection heats the coolest air. Now imagine that your radiator is across the whole of your floor. That is a huge amount of mass at a desired heat level that will only change very slowly,needing much less energy to maintain temperature than forced air or baseboard heat. 3)Forced air systems are often noisy, with more components that can break down(fans,compressor, refrigerant, etc) And they do! Ducts take up large amounts of space, none of it acting like mass heat storage. and uses more energy for the effective btu's.

Nope. They are pretty terrible.