We are going to build a new home. It will have 1,345 ft on the first floor and 530 ft on the second. Do we need radiant floor heat on both levels. My husband was told it would heat the whole house if you have it only on the first level. Also, are there two different kinds of radiant floor heat? One electric and one with water?
Can someone explain it to me? I am confused as to what we need to get. Thank you so much! I really appreciate any help you can give!

Radiant floor heat is a popular type of heating among those that can afford to have the best. Instead of heating air a long way off and creating a breeze to pass around the house, heat surrounds you in the floor. The floor is heated to a comfortable temperature that you will not notice at all in a properly designed system. The floor is heated either by electric cables in the flooring or small tubes carrying heated water. Most people are very comfortable with this type of heat when the thermostat is set at 65F instead of up at 72F or more; because the heat is sent to your skin through the air without having to heat the air first. Actually, the air around you is heated by you and the floor, instead of the usual other way around, so there is no breeze.

Because the thermostat is able to be set lower, there are significant savings in fuel bills as well, while there is no cold surface in the room.

It is unlikely that the radiant floor will also heat the upstairs without there being radiant heat in the floor upstairs. Buildings are insulated today so that there is little loss, however, each square foot of radiant floor can only provide about 30 btuh per exposed square foot. The heat losses of the building match the heat provided by the floor in the rooms WHERE THE FLOOR IS HEATED. There is not enough heat left over to heat rooms that are in a different part of the house.

However, that is not a problem because the upper floor has a warm floor from the room below and just some more supplemental heat, like an air conditioner system for the upstairs that will also have a hot water coil in it to provide upstairs heat, aside from the cooling coil for the summer. This also makes better use of an upstairs ducted system, instead of just using it for two months of the year and having to shut the registers to prevent the ducts from being chilled in the winter.

All in all, radiant heat is an excellent heating system, and if you can get it installed well, you will be one of the heated elite.

There is much information available from the Radiant Panel Association web site:
http://www.radiantpanelassociation.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?/pageid=99

Hydronic Network

Most of the information provided above is right on target, and applies mostly to hydronic (hot-water tubing) radiant floor heating systems. To respond to your question about the "2 kinds of radiant heat", the other kind (electric floor heating) is mostly installed as a supplemental source of heat or comfort in 1 or 2 rooms in the house. The number 1 selling room for electric floor heating is the bathroom, then the kitchen and perhaps the basement. Electric floor heating has a high cost per square foot but a very low start-up cost. As a result, it is a great solution for adding comfort to a couple of rooms in your home, but often not the right choice for whole-house heating. Hope this helps.

Nicolas
http://www.WarmlyYours.com