We are doing some remodeling in our basement and I am debating trying to put down radiant in floor heating for our gaming area. We have a rather large finished basement, around 1200 sq feet, and here in wisconsin the basement is always cold. In winter it can be significantly colder than the rest of the house above ground level. When the people before us finished the basement, they only put one single vent from the main furnace/AC trunk line by a back wall of the basement. It is nowhere near enough to heat the basement. We had to install an ERV just to deal with an abnormally high CO2 level, but of course that adds to the cold since the incoming air is cold in winter.
But, my concern with the radiant heating is the cost. I'd be doing the area most used by gaming/myself which is around 500sq ft. Electrical "dry" radiant heating install doing the labor myself would probably run $3000 just in materials alone I think? And trying to install a "dry" hydronic radiant heating system I think would also be just as cost prohibitive. I could also consider hiring someone for HVAC to install a couple new vents off of the main heating system and that might be cheap since they would not have to go through any finished areas?
Looking for thoughts on those that have used radiant heating, costs, vs using HVAC etc?