[Taz's Master]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

1. Potential for leaks
2. Copper piping is extremely expensive right now
3. Need for a second HW heater
4. Not cheap to run the heating
5. steel piping can rust
6. PVC piping in the slab can spall

That said, there are a lot of these sort of under-slab or in-slab radiant heating systems that work well for a long time. The type/quality of heat provided is amazing. I had the pleasure of visiting Mies Van Der Rohe's Crown Hall at IIT in the dead of winter several years ago. It's quite something to have the brutality of a Chicago winter only inches away on the other side of large expanses of single-paned glass but the radiant heat keeping you completely comfortable. It makes the experience like watching it in just enough of a detached way to make it something one appreciates without making it SO detached it's like watching it on television (which is often what the experience is like behind double and triple-paned glass and walls so packed with insulation it's like being in a spacecraft).

Efficient? Hardly. But an amazing experience. Radiant floors rock if done correctly.

I don't know about the efficiency aspect, but PoP's experience matches mine. With a wood stove I can make my indoor temp. whatever I want regardless of the outside temp. But the house is so much warmer feeling at 68 with the floor heat than 78 with the stove. Pex tubing in concrete, earth sheltered construction, no utilities (other than spetic) under the slab.