Energy efficiency
Politicians like to push sexy-sounding but technolgoically dubious low-carbon technologies such as hydrogen and corn-based ethanol. Here are some practical technologies that already exist.
1) Insulate your house well. This is by far the most important way to reduce heating costs. Doubling insulation roughly halves heating costs!
2) Florescent lights. (Payback time less than a year.)
3) Put solar panels on the roof and use them to heat the house and hot water. (Payback within a decade. My childhood home has this.)
4) If you live in an area with cheap wood, consider burning wood for heat. I would look into a high-temperature hydronic wood furnace, such as http://www.woodboilers.com/multi-fuel-furnace.asp. That furnace has natural gas or oil backup to keep your house warm when you forget to feed the fire or go on vacation. A hot-burning furnace has a number of advantages compared to a traditional, low-temperature wood stove or fireplace. In a traditional wood-stove, only the flames are warm enough to burn, so smoke that dodges the flames turns into creosote and pollution. Traditional wood-stoves require a lot of skill to operate - you need to get dry wood and arrange it properly to keep the flames warm. An insulated furnace is warm enough to burn throughout, so one should be a lot easier to use. (I grew up with a traditional wood-stove. I have not used a wood furnace.)
5) Get a boiler that generates electricity as well as hot water. http://www.whispergen.com/main/achome/
This will heat your house, as well as generating about a kilowatt of electrical power. It's like a power plant, but instead of wasting the waste heat in cooling towers it's used for house heat and hot water. I would seriously consider using one of those instead of a traditional boiler.
6) Combine the above two ideas, with a wood furnace that produces both electricity and heat. Unfortunately, the only ones of those I've found are too big for a home. This idea has been done on a massive scale to heat much of downtown St. Paul, Minnesota: http://www.nwcommunityenergy.org/biogeo/bioenergy-case-studies/wood-fueled-chp-project. Ones that are suitable for an apartment building or school are also available: http://stirling.dk/default.asp?ID=142 .
1) Insulate your house well. This is by far the most important way to reduce heating costs. Doubling insulation roughly halves heating costs!
2) Florescent lights. (Payback time less than a year.)
3) Put solar panels on the roof and use them to heat the house and hot water. (Payback within a decade. My childhood home has this.)
4) If you live in an area with cheap wood, consider burning wood for heat. I would look into a high-temperature hydronic wood furnace, such as http://www.woodboilers.com/multi-fuel-furnace.asp. That furnace has natural gas or oil backup to keep your house warm when you forget to feed the fire or go on vacation. A hot-burning furnace has a number of advantages compared to a traditional, low-temperature wood stove or fireplace. In a traditional wood-stove, only the flames are warm enough to burn, so smoke that dodges the flames turns into creosote and pollution. Traditional wood-stoves require a lot of skill to operate - you need to get dry wood and arrange it properly to keep the flames warm. An insulated furnace is warm enough to burn throughout, so one should be a lot easier to use. (I grew up with a traditional wood-stove. I have not used a wood furnace.)
5) Get a boiler that generates electricity as well as hot water. http://www.whispergen.com/main/achome/
This will heat your house, as well as generating about a kilowatt of electrical power. It's like a power plant, but instead of wasting the waste heat in cooling towers it's used for house heat and hot water. I would seriously consider using one of those instead of a traditional boiler.
6) Combine the above two ideas, with a wood furnace that produces both electricity and heat. Unfortunately, the only ones of those I've found are too big for a home. This idea has been done on a massive scale to heat much of downtown St. Paul, Minnesota: http://www.nwcommunityenergy.org/biogeo/bioenergy-case-studies/wood-fueled-chp-project. Ones that are suitable for an apartment building or school are also available: http://stirling.dk/default.asp?ID=142 .