Cohousing-L Mailing List: radiant heat query

[HeidiNYS (HeidiNYS]

Dear Co-housers,

We have radiant heat in our [second, recently built] home here at Cantines 
Island.

The pipes from the furnace are   not insulated.   Is the the way it's s'pozed 
to be??   
My experience with new furnaces is that they give off fairly small amt of 
ambient heat, whereas in this case, there is a lot of heat......   which am 
thinking is coming from the piupes.   contractor said he just saw another house 
w 
radiant heat and those pipes were, like our, un-insulated.   

So, my questions:   are they normally insulated?
if not, why not,
if yes, insulated, what kind of material is normally used??
many thanks,
Ruth Hirsch