Gas and Oil Home Heating Furnaces - Radiant floor & baseboard heating

I am in the process of planning to upgrade my master bath. I am looking for info on radiant floor heating. So far I like what I have found: warm tile floor, efficiency, and extra wall space, as opposed to baseboard heating.
My home is baseboard heating now, my questions are, can I install radiant floor heating in the new bath, tie it into the existing system and possible upgrade the entire home to radiant floor heating as funds become available or can these two types not be intermixed?

More info----- Do you have eletric or hot water baseboard now???????
Home on a slab or full basement???????????????;) ED

Sorry Ed, I try to cover all details, but your bond to miss something.
Hot water baseboard w/two zones, also boiler is aging and will be replaced within next two years if it makes it.
Full basement.
Another reason for my considerations of switching over the entire house in the future is the possible option of the radiant floor heating(hot water) can also be used to cool the home.
Any thoughts on this topic as well would be appreciated.

kcflip:

Switching over to radiant floor heat is a viable upgrade for your home.

The one thing you won't be able to do is use it for airconditioning.
Did you get this idea from a website or dealer?

The problem with trying to cool the home by using the floor heating coils, is that in order to have enough capacity to cool your home the floor would have to be at a temperature that would be prone to sweating. Plus it would be like walking on a cold basement floor.

An upgrade that could be possible if you wanted to install a/c is to install ductwork and use a hw coil for heat.

Like GregH said you cant use the floor for your A/C. If you want we do have dual coil blower units that you can use with the boiler and a a/c unit for heat and cool with some duct work;) ED

You need to due a carefull heat loss calculation. Older homes with poor insulation are not good candidates for radiant floor. The floor may have to be to hot to deliver the required heat.

Thanks for all the get info guys. My home was built in the 50's. It is a 1300 sq ft ranch. Poor wall insulation, but I am going room to room and redueing the exterior walls. I did get some great info from Radiantec, excellent design and construction manual. Any other sites to get more info. Thanks again, Kevin

Kevin:

Here are some links I have on radiant heat:


The first one has hard to get information on hydronic cooling.

http://oikos.com/esb/53/hydroniccool.html

http://oikos.com/esb/45/radiant.html

http://oikos.com/esb/45/retrofit.html

http://www.radiantdesigninstitute.com/page2.html