i have a regular heater with vents at floor level.

oh yes. the vents! they're dust traps in my house :) whenever the heat comes on the dust blows! so it's my excuse for not having a super clean house :)

This Lasko air heater Model 5628 is best room heater ever! Silent and effective.

A combo of things. A heater/furnace in the house. Heated floors in the barn (manages to heat the whole building well). And, unfortunately, the fireplace is not operable at the moment-it's on the to do list. But my favorite ways to keep warm are sweatpants, a throw blanket, kitty in my lap, and a mug of hot tea or cocoa.

Don't have them at the moment, but I LOVE heated floors in bathrooms. My aunt had one installed in her house in Minnesota and since then I have considered it to be the greatest winter house thing ever. (My feet are always cold.)

At the moment I'm on the hunt for an attractive low-profile way to add heat to an existing room that isn't connected to the radiator system the rest of the house uses. I'm trying to decide if I could live with a wall-mount electric fire as a design feature, or if I should go the other route with some kind of baseboard heater and just try to distract from it so you don't notice it's there.

This year: Regular central heating.
Next year: Moving to Texas so a total non issue!!!

Pellet stove insert......warms the whole house.

By living in Southern California....

this is ours...

Doing what I'm doing now, sitting by the fireplace with a cup of spiced/spiked cider with spicy scented candles...

I grew up always wearing sweaters at home. These days I splurge on the heater. I refuse to be cold in my own home! We have forced air heating, hot showers, a fireplace, space heaters and an electric blanket in a pinch.

My roommate and I have a dinky ol' heater in our apartment. We are totally spoiled Californians who cry when it is below 50 degrees. I can't help it! :(

Wood stove! I love the intense heat. Before we had the wood stove I spent evert Jan/Feb researching warm locales to move to. Now I enjoy life here year round.

Central heat. I don't have to get up and feed the wood heater like I did 30 years ago.

I have always loved a good old fashioned functional fireplace... ( is that an oxymoron?).... but with a really cool vintage heatilator to push all the hot air into the house. They work great! We are in SOCAL, so all we have is the portable heater variety, except in the new bedroom, we got a nice wall mount heater / a/c combo.

Fireplace wood burning insert

So much hot air on Houzz ;)

My favorite way is definitely the fireplace-I don't think I could live happily without one! But....I'm always cold so I use any form of heat I can get. The furnace, space heaters, blankets, hot tea, & my fireplace!

Gotta curl up with the puppies to stay warm

Sweater

D'oh Bart!!

Heated floors :)

I voted other for central heat.

had our first snow last night!!!

It depends, if in a very cold country than it would be nice to have a fire place and warm woolies, if 'winter' in another country, just warm woolies and fluffy socks .

Gas Central Heating, lined curtains, blinds on the windows and insulation x

We have central radiant heating throughout. It was a must-have when we were house hunting. Plus sweaters, throws and an affectionate cat. ;-)

Baseboard heater! Hydronic, of course.

Fireplace, faux fur blankets, fur baby on my lap, hot cup of tea or coffee and very soon, my own, snuggly warm pair of houzz slipperz :)

We just laid a roaring fire, time to go enjoy! I don't like an over heated house so I wear sweaters and layers. Some day I'll have heated floors in my master bath. A nice cup of cocoa is always warm and comforting, think I'll make one to drink by the fire....

I agree :) except I would add maybe just maybe? a towel warmer!!! :)

Downstate we have central heating but keep it at 60 most times and 66 for a while in the morning and evening. We use 3M on the older windows and it really makes a difference. I also have one of those Heat Dish's from Costco. But it really only works to warm one person at a time, unless you were both snuggled together. Upstate we have a wood burning insert and central heating. The wood burner keeps the whole house at about 70 degrees. When we aren't there we keep the furnace at 50 degrees or drain the hot water heater and turn the heat off. No problems with that last winter. You can actually acclimate yourself to cooler temperatures by not wearing as many clothes. Some people around here actually wear shorts year round.

I just purchased a new heater @ http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=24683016 It looks like an old fashioned stove! So far it is great since it hasn't been very cold. I only run it for 5-10 minutes or just put on the visual part of it for ambiance. We just used the gas fireplace once I rarely ever use my central heating since I live in So. CA and I like it kinda on the cool side. I also have a throw on the couch is case I need to warm up while relaxing. A glass of wine works well for us CA girls!

Heated mattress pad at night...furry cat in the daytime!

We have gas heat in our well-insulated, well-built small condo unit and keep the temperature low. Wool sweaters, lined jeans and hot tea or cocoa help. At night, quilts and flannel sheets on the bed, but boy, are those tile floors in the bathrooms and kitchen cold!

Good furnace, good insulation, tight windows will keep you warm.

Wear sweater and slippers at home

We have a pellet stove that heats the house so good. I love the heat of a real flame fire. As you can see by the attached photos, the kitties love it too.

I love your kitty photo!!! reminds me of the dear departed!! our Maine coon used to lay like that next to the fan!!

Socks - I'm a cheap SOB and I hate to pay for the electricity costs of additional heating in my past and present apartments.

We have electric heat. I hate it. We do have a basement fireplace. it is an insert but better than nothing. I would love to change it to fireplace without an insert or wood stove. We have a back up generator for emergency's. Along with the fireplace.

Does anyone have experience with electric underfloor radiant heat? We have a wee tiny mud room area that I want to redo with tile (slate, probably, I've always liked how it looks and how it doesn't get slippery when wet) and there isn't really a heat source there atm so I'm wondering if it would be worth installing something when it's all ripped up to do the tile anyway, to keep it from being TOO cold to comfortably use when removing shoes (cold tile floors = no fun) and to maybe help any moisture on the floor evaporate.

The rest of the house uses radiator heating so in theory I could possibly get the water fed under floor heating, but I'm worried about the height of the finished floor interfering with doors and causing a trip hazard on thresholds.

Built this house back in '95 and installed Radiant heat panels throughout the 10' to 25' ceilings. Zoned and remote controlled.
Radiant heat travels through space, just like sunshine, so no cool spots, no dusty air blowing around, no wood chopping, no gas fumes and the entire volume within the home was evenly warmed. 1/2 inch pine ceilings under the heat panels and Fibreglass insulation on top. Colorbond iron roof. Timber frame and painted weatherboard exterior. Don't know the brand or manufacturer, sorry. But.... Highly recommended if your'e building anywhere the weather gets cold. : )

Pirate foxy, great idea! I have both hot water radiant and electric system. While the hot water is more efficient, it is more expensive to put in, it's not just adding the tubing, and raising the floor. The electric is great, especially to take the chill off, and keep floors dry. There are ready made mats as well as custom sized and shaped. I'm sure one that is pre made in a square or rectangle will work fine for you. You'll be very happy with it :)

Piratefoxy, we did exactly what I think you are describing. We have a house from the 1920's with a steam radiator system throughout that can't be added to. We built a great-room/sunroom addition onto our kitchen where an old screened porch used to be, but we had to find some way to heat it. We put electric radiant heat into the concrete subfloor, with a wood floor on top (not ideal for heat conduction, but we needed it to match the wood floor in our kitchen since the rooms are continuous). The system works perfectly, with lovely warm floors in our sunroom and our radiators heating the rest of the house. Our dogs think we built the sunroom just for them as the combination of warm floors and floor to ceiling windows for backyard squirrel watching are their idea of heaven.
In your case, tile or slate would be much better heat conductors than our wood, thus keeping the space even warmer.

@mfoor and @feeny - Thanks, that makes my plans sound fairly promising. Although I may have to invest in a heated dog bed also to keep the pooch from hogging all the floor space and getting in the way of people actually using the mudroom entrance! :)

(My aunt in Minnesota has had underfloor heating for years, going back to when only the water variety was available, and it has horribly spoiled me. There's no bathroom renovation in the plans at the moment, but I'm sure if we do decide to start mucking around in either room, underfloor heating will be considered there, too. Even in a room that does have another heat source, it just makes some floor surfaces so much more comfortable in the winter.)

No matter the temperature, the weather or the season, our infrared heaters keep us warm and cozy all year long both indoors and out. (A cup of hot cocoa doesn't hurt too!)

I was at book group last night and it was way too hot for me :) Not the book! the house.
I had a really nice time, but it was so hot!!! I was glad to get out in the cold afterwards.
i'm one of those people who is always cold, yet last night I could feel my ears burning! :)

If these hot and cold episodes continue .....