What do you heat your home with and what does it cost??

[Annemieke]

Our house is rented so we can't do a lot about it, but the arrangement is quite sensible.
We have one storage heater, with a shortcut to all-day electrics in case of need. Then we have a wood-fired Rayburn which we tend to light around 3-4 pm in winter, to let it go out after 7-ish. Wood is free: neighbouring farmers let us have fallen trees. Then we've got various electric heaters dotted throughout the house which I light if I'm cold, usually complaining to my husband why on earth he isn't cold? It's winter isn't it?
Our living kitchen is about 12°C near the Rayburn, at most. We usually wear hats, thermals etc. around the house this time of year.
We've got double glazing and have insulated the loft ourselves, with wool insulation, no horrible fibres - the loft isn't big anyway.
This January I was in Sweden on a (meditation) course and I was boiling hot there all the time. Building triple glazed, heat roaring though from a good system: miles of pipes deep under the soil, using the warmth of the earth. I've been freezing since I came back to England!
Cost of electrics vary strongly according to whether our son is home ....

[Stonehead]

We've just had our central heating and insulation upgraded, but the majority of the house has ended up colder than it was before. We had a 1980s oil boiler, under-spec radiatiors, no wall insulation and patchy roof insulation. With the heating on, we could get the temperature up to 15ºC throughout the house, which was okay.

Now, we have a very efficient condensing oil boiler (outside, so much less noise too), new radiators in the living room and snug, cavity wall insulation in the extensions (about 50% of the external wall area) and insulation in the small area of loft that could be done without taking the roof off.

The problem is that the room thermostat in the living room turns the heating off when the temperature hits 18ºC, which is fine if we're all happy to be in the living room. But the dining room, kitchen and bathroom (all the insulated spaces) don't get any heating when the thermostat cuts the heating off and they don't get above 12ºC. It's even worse in the mornings when the heating's been off all night—the living room temperature rockets up to 18ºC after 20 minutes heating while the other rooms sit on 7-9ºC. They don't freeze as they used to (thanks to the insulation), but they're never warm either.

It's annoying, to say the least.

[Sadoldhippy]

I rent an ex RAF house and it is mostly electric storage heaters and electric for the water and cooker. Luckily there is a solid fuel stove which we had to agree to be responsible for and will have to pay to get the chimney blocked up when we leave. It is £5 per year to rent a peat bank and so I have been cutting peat. I managed about 100 bags last year but to get through the winter on peat rather than using it as a supplement for the electric, you need about 250-300 bags so I am hoping to cut more this year. A couple of years ago I tried buying in locally (relatively) produced sawdust briquettes but they cost nearly £7 per bag!

[GregTraver]

I heat my home with natural gas and it runs a bit over 200 USD in the winter. When we get moved to the country (not soon enough) I am planning on using passive solar and a rocket stove. If that is a new term for you then get over to YoutTube. You will enjoy learning something new that can save you a lot of money if you are burning wood/coal.