Using electricity to heat can be costly if using the old resistant heat like baseboards. Check out ceiling mounted electric radiant heating panels. They use new technology to heat using long wave infrared.
Zone heat the house, no floor space used, no maintenance, doesn't dry out the air. Very efficient in using electricity. I have used Solid State Heating in CT (Made in USA!) link
There is another ceiling mounted radiant heating outfit in Wisconsin- Radiant Electric Heat. Works well in glass sunrooms too, the infrared heat bounces off glass.

Stay Warm

TNVanMan

you can do hydronic ceilings as well, much cheaper than most floor methods. If your loads are low enough, the difference is small as well. All depends though. Even with ICF/SIP, you may have higher loads if you go nuts with the glass.

The idea of infrared panels is excelent. I didn't know about this system. I'll have to compare prices though, a regular electric baseboard is about $50 while an infrared panel seems to cost more than $200. I can still go with a combination of the 2 types, smaller rooms with regular electric baseboard and larger rooms with infrared panels.
If I'll go with radiant floor, this will be only on the concrete first floor, with PEX tubes inserted while they put the concrete.

I have a different approach for you to consider Legalett is a Swedish design of radiant floor proven for over 25 years. It uses piping in concrete but the heat transfer is via air preheated typically by fuel or electricity. It can be installed easily by untrained personel as long as you can read a simple drawing. They do insist on a prepour inspection to protect their reputation. The Canadian rep is accelerating thier marketing & may price nidely for first application in your area. I have been running the system for four years off my domestic hot water tank as it can use water to 150F and no hot spots. Check them out at http://www.legalett.ca/Index.htm Next time I will pick a more efficient water heater - my only mistake

I checked briefly Legalett, and spoke with the dealer in my area. Their installed price is about $18/sq.ft., I find this too expensive. In addition to this, I think water is much more efficient to transport heat than air, maybe because the thermal mass of water is 3000 times more than air's.

Talk to them about self install A big part of thier price is labour and concrete l It is like Lego to put together -- Dealer will want to install if he can convince you but there are no real difficuties. Tell him what you are willing to do yourself. They do much more than install in providing qualified design, drawings for building permit, a superior foundation and you are left to install only a heat source & water piping Be sure you are looking at full installed cost. They also save you extensive excavation & backfill. The air versus water is irrelevant as they supply enough air to carry all the heat you will need & air is free!

Maybe, but if air is so good for radiant floor heating why almost all the applications use water and not air? After all, to use water you need more equipment and there is also the danger of a nail causing a leak in the water pipe. All I read about radiant floor heating recommended the use of water.

You hit one nail on the head -- your water piping in or on top of concrete is subject to nail strikes when internal walls are anchored. The air system can never freeze up near outside walls during power outages also. Water is used in most applications in my opinion because it allows conventional construction & fitting of heat pipes above the concrete . The trades are difficult to convince od something new. The use of air as the medium carrying the heat is well proven & standard construction in Sweden . Ask around at the people using Legalett. It is troublefree.- even if the floor cracks although the frost free control under the slab minimizes this potential. As with anything new it takes a while for the benefits to be known & taken advantage of. Water systems if poorly designed can produce hot spots you would not want to walk on barefoot. The air in concrete can barely be felt above the pipes. The people who recommend water are those who have not likely even heard of Legalett. It has been here for a few years but has not been pushed. It is a lot simpler to control than varying water flow through a series of loops all or some on at various times. You can hire cheap school kids to install foam ,reinforcing & piping instead of paying for expensive tradesmen . I did it four years ago .

Thanks for the info, I'll do my research. You mentioned that next time you would choose a better water heater. What do you recommend here? Should a 60 Gal electric heater serve both DHW and legalett?

If poorly designed, all systems are poor.

Air is a poor transmitter of heat. Compare fan energy usage to a pump, and you'll see why that matters. You can move dozens or even hundreds of times as much energy per watt in water pumpnig than you can in a fan pushing air around. You throw away a big advantage of radiant (distribution efficiency) if you throw a fan back in the mix. I can heat the vast majority of homes with two 75 watt circulators, with nearly unlimited zoning. You can't get anywhere near that with air.

Using air in radiant floors is not new, and it's not cutting edge, IMHO. There may be particular projects where it might make some sense, but I can't for the life of me imagine where.

I would not use electric if a significant part of my heating was being done with electric Way more expensive!. I use propane only because I am too far from natural gas. Since the legalett does most of my heating in a very cold climate (Kapuskasing) I wish I had gone with fuel oil in a tankless condensing water heater . My research shows this would safe me over $600 per year at current prices. I will look up & post a site for fuel comparisons but since you seem to be at it I thought I would keep this conversation going

where would you find a condensing, oil burning, tankless water heater? Last I knew, they were all gas or propane. Are you having units shipped from europe or something?

I think you are right Rob -- Since I have propane on other appliances I think it makes sense to go tankless but GAS Starting over I would go Oil-- boiler. Here is a good site to compare fuel costs . Who says the Gov't never helps out? Be careful to update to present day fuel cost delivered as they use 2004 numbers in examples I also down rate claimed efficiencies for the real world LINK

What about solar - electric combination? I mean solar to heat water, not to produce electricity.

If you're using low temperature systems, a mod/con gas boiler can make lots of sense.. you can have up to 15% or more in real world efficiency differences compared to conventional boilers in that case. I'm not sure what canada does for heat source ratings though, that's assuming AFUE ratings that we use here in the US.

Solar heating can be done with radiant, and in some areas it can even make sense. I always tell my clients to look at solar DHW first... that is the best use of solar hot water (used year round, including when it is most effective, and it's simplest). Heating with it will basically, in most cases, double that cost and lengthen the payback quite a bit. Which might be fine, but DHW is definitely ideal and for most people will definitely pay back.

throw a fan back in the mix. I can heat the vast majority of homes with two 75 watt circulators, with nearly unlimited zoning. You can't get anywhere near that with air.

Using air in radiant floors is not new, and it's not cutting edge, IMHO. There may be particular projects where it might make some sense, but I can't for the life of me imagine where. Rob I use .55 amp 110 volt circ pump & 200 watt fan part time They do the job! I think you are confusing energy content per Lb of air & water True wildly different. But move enough air & you deliver the heat . The fan circulates 1000 cubic metres per hour & is under the top of cement and cannot be heard. The Swedes would not have 100,000's sq ft done in Legalett if it didn't work . They have high energy costs sare very up to date

I didn't say it didn't work. I said it doesn't have anywhere near the distribution efficiency of a water system. You move a lot more.. a WHOLE lot more BTUs per watt with a pump than with a fan. Such as more than ten times the BTUs per watt if it's in water. I'm not confusing anything... blowing air is a very inefficient way to distribute heat. It's a smaller part of the overall energy equation, for sure, but if everything else is equal then it's significant.

Just because they are swedish does not mean they are correct. They also do lots of hydronics. The pipe we use for hydronics, in fact, is made in sweden. So that proves nothing.

Take a look at the last several years of inflation rates for propane, natural gas, oil etc. and my long-term money is on electricity. Yes, that may depend some on where you live and how much your state charges for tax and the price to distribute any of these resources. Last I checked the national average of electricity was .08/kwh. If you are way above that than using other energy resources or solar might be your ticket. As a remodeler I opt for radiant floor heating in the majority of my projects and my home owners have always been thrilled. I have looked at all the options and end up using one form or another of electric radiant heat supplied by Warmzone (warmzone.com). My advice would be to put your money in top quality insualtion and then introduce radiant heat in the most logical way possible. My preference has been electric and the flatter inflationary slope has been my reason why. Call Warmzone for advice. They always consider the project details before trying to sell me something. They are a national distributor of a bunch of top radiant products and don't go by the One Size Fits All mentality.

LINK Check this site for energy fuel comparisons. You can put in any load & pricing you like.

Beno is building in Ontario where top tier cost per KWH delivered is in the order of 12 cents~~ -- Thanks to some incredibly stupid power plant decisions made years ago. As for future pricing -- Ontario is facing a huge capital cost to replace aging generators & phase out "dirty"coal. I would not go with electrical except in a ground source heat pump system where most of the heat is free.
The big expense there is well drilling. If you know you can get deep easily ask around the suppliers for that as a heat source. . Air cooling is done in a summer with some of the equipment but the radiant floor components are not compatible.
Your Solar heat as a source is too expensive to only use in winter heating & should be sized to do only domestic hot water based on energy requirements in the summer. This keeps the solar working hard all year round wihout expensive oversizing of its equipment.
Beno -- will you keep us informed of your final configuration?