If you live in a cold climate, reducing your home's energy use for heating can save more energy than anything else.

Without making an investment in a new heating system, here are some little things you can do that will give you big savings.

1. Warm your body instead of the air around you

It takes a lot more energy to warm the air in a room than it does to warm your body. There are many ways to warms your body that require no energy at all!

To warm your body:

• Wear warm woolen clothing, particularly a hat, since a large percentage of body heat is lost through the top of your head.
• Eat and drink warming foods and beverages such as herbal tea, warm grains, soups, stews, fruit compotes.
• Snuggle under a blanket with someone you feel cozy with and share body warmth.
• Sit in a sunny window.
• Exercise.
• Stay indoors.
• Take a hot bath.

2. Use an electric space heater

Even though electricity is less efficient and more expensive than gas, heating only rooms actually in use can be an efficient alternative to heating your whole house.

At times all you may need is a spot of warmth in the morning in a cold bathroom, or some heat for your feet under your desk. You may also want a handy emergency backup in case the furnace dies! For these uses, a small space heater (sold in most hardware stores) will be your best choice. Designs and prices differ widely--from $10 to $200 depending on what you choose.

Choose the right type of space heater for your personal need.

Radiant Heaters are best for quick spot heating, like warming your hands in front of a fire. Good in basements, garages, cold bathrooms in the morning. Fans are usually just to cool the elements, not to circulate air.

• Most are low and rectangular in shape, with a wide opening to expose their glowing metal or quartz elements.
• Upright tower models will be more prone to tip -- be sure they come with a good tipover switch.

Convection Heaters heat and circulate the air better than radiant heaters, so they are a better choice for heating entire rooms. They don't have to take up much space or cost much, either. Types include:

• Baseboard - These usually don't have fans, so they are quiet. The element is close to the floor, where it heats the coolest air and takes advantage of the laws of physics for circulation.
• Fan-forced - These use an internal fan blowing over glowing wire or coil elements. Some oscilate.
• Ceramic - These use a ceramic heating element and are usually quite small and typically cube-shaped. Most are under 10 inches a side, making them ideal for desks, both on and under.
• Liquid-filled - These look like old-fashioned steam radiators on wheels. Usually fanless, they are slow to warm the oil inside, but are equally slow to lose their heat. They can be awkward to move, as they are usually quite heavy (hence the castors).

3. Operate your central heating system efficiently

Here are some tips for using the central heating system you have more efficiently.

• Maintain your furnace. Gas furnaces should be tuned every two years and oil furnaces each year. Test your furnace for combustion efficiency and pollutants, clean it, and adjust it. A heating technician can be hired to do this for a nominal fee.
• Change your filters. If you have a forced-air system, change your filters once a month to save energy and minimize dust. Better yet, get high-efficiency HVAC filters, which cost three times as much, but last three times as long, so they only need to be changed every three months (saving materials used to make two filters).
• Install a programmable clock thermostat. We noticed a significant difference in energy use when we installed ours. A programmable thermostate can automatically keep the heat lower at night and during the daytime hours when you are away. This can save 20 to 40 percent of energy during the day and 10 to 14 percent at night.
• Keep the temperature as low as you can tolerate. This will save both energy and money. Heating to 68 degrees requires only half the energy as 75 degrees.
• Set the thermostat for the temperature you actually desire. Your house will not cool or warm faster if you crank the temperature higher. Just pick the temperature you actually want, and that way you won't forget to turn it back down.
• Check your thermostat to make sure it is accurate. With an accurate thermometer, make sure that the temperature near your thermostat is representative of the rest of your house. If it is located in a drafty spot, you may be getting false readings and wasting energy. Put a piece of insulation in the wall behind the thermostat so it will read room temperature. If you have an old thermostat, it won't be as accurate as a new one. Best to replace it with a programmable clock thermostat.

4. Install a ceiling fan

Yes, running a fan can make your house warmer, not cooler.

Because heat rises, rooms can be up to 15 degrees warmer at the ceiling than at the floor. A ceiling fan with a motor that will run in reverse can push warm air near the ceiling down to the floor where you can feel it. A good ceiling fan can reduce the temperature difference between floor and ceiling to only 3 degrees reducing your need to generate heat. And because they use no more energy than a 60 watt light bulb, the energy trade-off is a good one.

Though installing a ceiling fan may seem like a big investment, a basic model can be purchased at most home improvement stores for less than $50. They are available in a wide range of fashionable designs and are so quiet you won't even notice they are there (really, we have them in every room and run them all summer and don't even notice them).

When choosing a ceiling fan, look for a model with:

• A reversible motor.
• More than one speed.
• Blades angled at least 10 degrees.
• The proper size for the size of your room.

Ceiling fans should only be installed in rooms where the blades can be seven feet from the floor.