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Space heating can constitute 60–80% of the total energy use of buildings in cold climates. Efficient heating techniques in buildings still rely on operating strategies. In this paper, a church with radiant floor heating in a cold climate is taken as a case of a large single-zone building to analyze the energy use for heating. Field measurements and numerical analysis are both used in the study. Different operating modes of heating, including intermittent heating and constant set-point heating, are compared for energy saving, reliability on indoor climate, and thermal comfort. The intermittent heating by an all-air system with supplied air temperature control results in the highest energy use. The constant set-point air temperature radiant floor heating aided by a warm air system (return air temperature control) is least affected by outdoor temperature with the best reliability and met the thermal comfort requirements throughout the heating season. The main novelty is that an operating mode of cyclic set-point air temperature is proposed. It is found that the small thermal inertia of heating systems should be preferred when the operating mode of cyclic set-point temperature is used to reduce the warm-up period. The results suggest how to operate and reduce the energy use of radiant floor heating systems in a large single-zone building.