Radiant Heat

We've decided that we have to have air-conditioning. Personally, I'm not a big fan of AC - I like a good floor fan and to be able to hear the outdoors. But if folks are going to give us money to stay in our cabin, last thing we want to do is ask them to suffer through the occasional 90 degree WV afternoon (and then there are the down-the-road resale considerations). It's a big added cost for us; we could have just done radiant heat in the floors and the woodburning stove, not have hired an HVAC guy, and not have had to have a soffit in the basement or to cut up the floors to add registers (air vents) after the house is delivered (Simplex doesn't recommend doing it in the factory, because HVAC guys are always moving the locations of the registers around to suit the duct installation).

So we will have a forced air AC system. Which means that radiant floor heating becomes a redundancy - forced air heat is a no-brainer if you're doing AC. But we really want it in the basement - exposed concrete will be chilly down there, and what's the point of having it if you're just gonna put rugs over it? So I'm thinking I'm going to try to put in radiant heating anyway, if only in the basement (but maybe underneath the first floor, too). Anybody have any experience with a redundant system like this? Used a furnace with a closed secondary system for the radiant? Or used a separate heater (maybe tankless)? Installed it yourself? Let me know - lostrivermodern AT gmail DOT com.