When you want to stay warm, you usually depend on the standard methods of energy - coal, oil or gas.  In these times of raising consciousness, the ability to stay warm and help the environment has become the new warm.  We want to stay warm in the winter, and when days shorten and cold weather descends, we look for ways to be kind to the environment while heating our homes.

To date, natural gas is still the most widely utilized forms of energy for heating our homes.  About 1/2 of the American population currently uses natural gas to heat their homes with increases yearly.  The reason for this is that it’s a pretty clean energy source and it doesn’t require that much maintenance.  Pricing has been inexpensive for years with increases only being seen lately.  A typical home will pay somewhere between $700 and $1,500 per winter season plus the monthly service charges.

Clean coal technology has been spouted by politicians lately, causing the spotlight to shift to the coal furnace.  Coal is a very inexpensive source of domestic energy, but the cost of the furnaces can run pretty high and they take constant supervision and they are not clean or lacking in environmental pollutant agents that make it a less desirable source of energy.  Coal prices have also increased sharply in the last year or so.

Heating oil is a popular choice in the Northeast states with 80 percent of Maine homes relying on oil heat to stay warm.  The average home uses 800+ gallons of oil per winter, and it isn’t considered a very clean energy source.  It releases high amounts of CO2 and particulates, with heating oil prices rising sharply recently.  All of this adds up to a winter total of anywhere from $2,500 to $3,000 not including delivery costs.

Electric furnaces are generally used in mild climates and are usually part of a total system that includes heat and air conditioning.  Central air is an expensive prospect and the operation is usually poor on efficiency with the price of electricity much higher than any other energy source.  A typical heater converts 1 kilowatt of electricity into about 3, 300 BTU.  The average cost for electricity is between 12 and 20 cents per kilowatt so heating an average home would run between $4,000 and $6,600 plus fees.

In addition to these mainstream energy sources, there is still some supplementary energy sources including firewood, pellet stoves, dark paint applied to the roof to capture heat from the sun’s energy, small electric heaters that only heat specific areas being used in your home, adding insulation, and heat pumps which are similar but not the same as an electric furnace which is cheaper.

Both consumers and scientists have been experimenting with other alternative energy sources including experiments to produce natural gas from landfills, biodiesel being used as an additive in oil heat and other green source energy projects.  While these developments are decades away, they are still out there on the drawing board.