[Greenbuilding] Ranking heating & heat retention approaches in residences

[Reuben Deumling]

A few possible ways to heat the interior of a house (more and less green):

(1) by burning something directly:
  a) oil
  b) coal
  c) natural gas
  d) wood

(2) by running electricity through a resistive element, made from a) - c)
above, or
  d) wind
  e) solar
  f) uranium

(3) with passive solar design

(4) by insulating the building maximally (to keep body heat inside living
area)

(5) by insulating one's body (to keep body heat inside clothes)

There are surely other ways to do this, but this is my quickly assembled
list. We might want to try to rank these. It seems to me that we have a lot
of experience with many of the greener/more interesting candidates &
combinations thereof on this list. I invite anyone to endeavor to pick &
perhaps qualify our top three choices. To start things off here are mine:

For a newly constructed house:
I (4) maximum insulation
II (3) passive solar
III (1) d) wood heating
and (5) down vest, etc. is always a good complement

For an existing house that its occupants are inclined to retrofit or improve
upon:
I (4) maximum insulation
II (1) d) wood heating
III (5) down vest, etc. or (3) passive solar if it seems feasible

Reuben Deumling