Radiant heaters give off rays of heat from a hot surface. Like the sun, the rays radiate through the room, gently warming surfaces such as furniture, people, floors and walls, which in turn reflect heat back into the air around them. Radiators and open fires as the most common examples of a radiant heater, and these are a good choice for rooms with high ceilings, poor insulation, open-plan design or unavoidable drafts.

Convection heaters heat air which then circulates through the room, usually with the help of a fan. Basically it’s the forced air kind of heating that comes from your HVAC, and this is the most common type of heating we have here in America. But this method isn’t perfect for all situations; it works best in rooms with good insulation, few drafts and average-height ceilings.

Insulation is one of the most important things you want to think about in the winter months. Having a warm, cozy house throughout the winter is mostly about capturing or creating warmth, then taking measures to ensure it doesn’t immediately dissipate. To retain maximum heat during winter, and actually to help keep cool in summer, home insulation is one of the best solutions. Although insulation can be expensive to install, it’s been shown to help to lower energy consumption by up to 40% and therefore reduce ongoing energy bills. And don’t forget, there’s currently a $1500 tax credit for installing insulation in your primary residence, but you’ve only got until December 31st, to do so. To find out the full details on that program, have a look at www.energystar.gov

Here are a few other things you can do to keep cozy:

• The effect of the chill winds outside can be reduced by putting draft sealing around windows and doors, or at least placing a few draft stoppers or those stuffed cloth snakes at the foot of external doors.
• Change your window treatments. If you have nice, light curtains that are great in the summer, you might want to swap them out for some heavy or lined curtains, and draw them as soon as the sun goes down.
• Create heat zones within your house. Only heat rooms which are occupied; close the vent or turn down the radiator in the spare room and close doors to rooms that aren’t being used as this helps keep heat in the area where it’s most needed.
• If you’ve just got a small area that you want to heat, or you want to add a little more punch on a really cold day, you might look at a space heater. These are the little personal heaters that you can plug in, in different rooms, and can be fan based, convection based or a combination of the two. Keep in mind, though: even though space heaters are effective, they can be very costly to run, so only use them when you really need them.

Whatever way you choose to heat your house, you can always bury yourself in a comforter with a mug of hot chocolate and enjoy that fuzzy feeling. Winter doesn’t have to be so bad after all.