It ' s worth it , if you ' re going to put down a floor anyway . I wouldn ' t build a new house without it . It ' s simply that much more comfortable . The price and potential savings are very much dependent on where in the world you live . The downside to having it , is that people often turn up the room temperature to the same level as they would ' ve used with regular radiators . Floor heated rooms can be 12 degrees C colder and still feel warm . So , the bad habits sort of balances out the potential savings on the usage . If you put it in right away in a new construction , it might even be cheaper than to get radiators installed in the first place . You also get a lot more useable floor space where the radiators would have been otherwise . There many different ways and prices on this . The one in OPs picture have the boards precut to fit the pipes and secure that the turns are wide enough and such . This is easier and more maintenance friendly , but also more pricey than just clamping the pipes or rolling out a prefixed mat and pouring concrete on top . So it also depends on what kind of floor you want on top and if it ' s in the basement or first floor etc . It ' s a very common DIY job where I live , except for the last part where you attach it to the main line . As you can see there are many factors to include in the overall long term economics . If you ' re building a new house , I highly recommend you look into it before making a decision . It ' s way more difficult to install afterwards .