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 Heating, Gas or Solid Fuel Electricity - It's available almost everywhere.
- Some power companies offer a subscription to a green-power scheme, where you pay a slightly higher rate per kWh for electricity that's generated from renewable sources such as solar, hydro, wind or biomass.
- Electric heaters are very energy-efficient, and don't produce pollutants in your home.
- You don't need to store fuel.
Natural gas - Generally much cheaper than heating with portable electric heaters.
- Generally produces much less carbon dioxide than heating with electricity (except reverse-cycle air conditioning).
- The heating capacity of portable gas heaters isn't as limited as with portable electric heaters.
- Gas heaters carry a star label that tells you about their energy efficiency: the more stars, the more efficient they are.
Solid fuels Firewood should be well seasoned (left to dry for at least two summers) so you don't waste energy evaporating water by burning green wood. Hardwood contains more energy than softwood, and burns longer and more steadily. But it's also harder to light. Softwood can spit and spark in open fires. Coal has a high energy content. It can be burnt in many slow-combustion heaters, but you'll probably need to use fire lighters or light a woodfire first to get it started. - Wood and coal are available almost everywhere.
- Wood heating can be very economical because a lot of people -- particularly in rural areas -- may have cheap or even free access to firewood (however, check whether you need a permit to collect firewood from forests).
- If firewood is used sustainably (by regrowing the amount that's used) and burned in a slow-combustion heater, it produces the least amount of CO of all the fuels in our comparison.
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