What exactly is hot water radiant floor heat? Basically the floors of a building are turned into radiators... Luckily, this does not mean they become too hot to touch with bear hands. They simply radiate heat upwards from the bottom to the top of the room, creating a very pleasant and even heat. This is one of the things that differentiates them from blown air heating systems.
Radiant heat flooring can be electrically powered, but this loses some of the advantages we find with the water based system, mainly the cost effectiveness we find with hot water heating.
The radiant floor heat layout for water systems is simply a line of pipes that file up and down under the floor boards. The pipes are fairly wide diameter and hot water is pumped through them.
Clearly for this kind of system you will need radiant floor heat boilers - and the actual cost of running the system depends on what fuel you use for powering the boiler. Gas and oil are good choices, but in some places gas or wood are used - all that is needed is some way of getting the water good and hot.
Floor heating has many advantages that warrant serious consideration. It is not an easy job to fit proper water based underfloor heating however, so weigh the options carefully.