Introduction by Kelly P @ Green and Prosperous; infographic by Senator Windows

During the cold months of the year your house loses heat from a number of different places, including the roof, floors, windows, and walls. Preventing heat loss is a major concern for homeowners, who are increasingly demonstrating interest in finding ways to not only heat the home in the cold months, but to do so in environmentally-friendly ways.

The most environmentally-friendly way to heat your home is through geothermal heat. Geothermal heat can heat a home by transferring heat to or from the ground. This is usually accomplished through a geothermal heat pump. It can cut energy bills by up to 65% but requires a geothermal heat pump system (GHP), which are more expensive to install than conventional heating systems, but also much more efficient, low maintenance, and (typically), longer-lasting.

Pellet stoves, solar heating, and masonry heaters are three other eco-friendly methods for heating your home. Pellet stoves burn materials made from wood by-products that would otherwise be discarded, like sawdust, or from renewable products like switch grass. Solar heating operates in one of two ways: one systems heats liquid in a hydronic collector, and the other heats air. Masonry heaters look like traditional fireplaces and like fireplaces they burn wood, but they do it much more slowly and efficiently, and with less pollution, storing and distributing heat through the bricks of their smoke chambers.

However, each of these methods require professional installation, which in addition to the unit(s), can cost up to tens of thousands of dollars. While the cost of solar installations has been steadily decreasing with increased global demand, having these kinds of heating technologies installed is is cost-prohibitive for most people.

The infographic below illustrates the problem of heat loss in your home and shares a variety of ways you can reduce this heat loss more cheaply while remaining friendly to the environment.