We were lucky enought o build last year and I put water pipes in the slab heated with a hot water heatpump.
I put sensors in the slab and can set via a web page on a controller what Temp I want the slab to get to before the heat pump turns off, wait for it to drop 1.2° and then turn on again. Seems to work well and keep the house at a reasonable temp.
See the Temperatures page on my homepage .. http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~rob
Last month it was on for the whole month and our power bill was $140.
And the whole house is warm, really happy for an outlay less than $15K

Rob

We have a Panasonic heat pump and I turn it on for a hour or 2 in the morning and again at 5pm till late, we also have a open fire, and 3 econo panels in bedrooms, we have R3.6 batts in ceiling and have had Airfoam installed in all exterior walls, our power bill is pretty good sitting at $220 per month we have a smart meter too but have not had any issues so far. Would like to know powers bills of other families of similar size. we are with Genesis

We have gas central heating, ducted to every room and it is fantastic, had over 12 yrs of good winter heating since dropping the log burner. Was burnt out & the gas was the cheaper option to replace it with at the time.
Have a programmable controller for it so you can set times of day and days as you wish for temperature.

During the winter we leave it run 24/7 as the smart controller looks after it all.
Our electricity bill is coupled with the gas bill, we take care with the power useage but as we use gas for cooking & water heating as well the power bill is low.
The gas is much higher but affordable and only been moderate increases so far. Our useage over the years is pretty constant. Our temp setting during winter is 20deg but sometimes we up to 21 if really cold.

House is insulated, windows covered so all good. A very cosy home & so nice to get up to a warm house. There is just my wife & I, both retired and really would find it hard to use any other form of heating.
But if it breaks down beyond repair, well it would be costly to replace. Not sure if you can get them here any more. Made in Australia.

We also run a moisture removal unit which during winter keeps the home dry, this makes a big difference as well.

Yep it climbs every year even keeping the power usage at similar levels,this mob is ready to sell it off and look forward to more increases.