A great way to save money on your energy bill each month and to do right by the environment at the same time is to evaluate the current heating system in your home and determine whether or not you need to upgrade to a newer, more efficient system.

Lots to Choose From

There are quite a few methods of heating your home, each has its benefits and each has its potential downsides. There are forced air systems, forced water systems (hydronic); electric baseboard heat and new styles of home heating alternatives are cropping up every single day. Your system could be powered by natural gas, by home heating oil or by electricity.

Some changes or renovations can bring about a lofty initial investment. Complete conversions from one source to another (like switching from oil heat to gas heat) will require a whole new furnace, new conduit to deliver the oil or gas to the furnace, perhaps a new method of ventilation and even new components to deliver the heat where it needs to go. This, even if it will bring about a reasonable monthly savings on the energy bill, can be too much of a financial undertaking for some people, but the good news is that the furnaces of toady are, as a whole, much more efficient of the furnaces of even just a few years ago.

This means, that even if you can't afford the initial expense of replacing your entire heating system for what seems to be the most efficient option overall, that you could still replace just your boiler with a newer, more efficient version and end up saving a good deal of money on your annual energy bill.

Gas Heat Options

A gas furnace can be either forced air, in which you'll have discharge vents throughout your home that dispel warm air to provide heat; or forced water, in which you'll have either aluminum or cast iron radiators in each room of your home that give off heat. The efficiency of either system really depends on the efficiency of your boiler and the control system that it operates on. Newer boilers will use less fuel to attain the desired temperature and accurate controls (programmable thermostats) will keep home temperatures in check.

That being said, of the three choices above (air vents, aluminum radiators and cast iron radiators) the cast iron radiators are generally considered to be the most efficient because as the iron gets heated from the hot water it retains and continues to give off heat where the other two options will not.

Oil Heat Options

The oil heat options are strikingly similar to the gas heating options, though radiators are much more common among homes heated by oil. As with the gas heating options, the efficiency of the system depends on the efficiency of the furnace and of the controls.

The cost of oil and gas both fluctuate, so which one is the more cost effective option for home heating could change, literally, on any given day. The one continuous benefit that gas has over oil is that it is readily available in your home at all times, provided that you pay your bill - whereas oil needs to be delivered to your home, so there is a chance that you could conceivable run out leaving you with no heat.

Electric Heating Options

There are hardwired electric baseboard heaters that have a similar look to gas and oil aluminum radiators, there are supplemental options of portable space heaters and individual units with fans that can be installed in bathrooms, laundry rooms etc. Electric heat has come a long way in improving efficiency, but as with gas and oil the price of electricity fluctuates as well. Though vast improvements have been made in recent years, it's difficult for electric heat to compete with gas and oil on entire home heating, especially in exceedingly cold environments.

With the constant fluctuation of prices for all of the fossil fuels, and with new innovations being generated every day with wind and solar power etc. It's really hard to determine what the single most efficient method for heating your home is, but if you're current system if more than ten years old, odds are you could experience substantial savings simply by upgrading to a newer furnace or boiler.