There are a lot of different ways to heat a home and it depends on the part of the
country that you live in on which kind of system that you will most typically have in your home. On the east coast of the United States the more popular method to heat a home is through oil. This is most likely because there is a lot more older homes on the east coast that have not been retro fitted to run from natural gas like the western part of the United States has been.
Oil is one an old style system if heating a home. One of the parts of the system is a large oil tank that is sued to hold the oil that then circulates through the home in a thing that they call radiators. These style heaters then radiate the heat to the rest of the room from the hot oil that is circulating through them.
In the western United States and throughout many other parts of the country home s are heated using natural gas and a furnace. The natural gas is burned and then air passes over it and is blown through the house through the venting system of the home that is run through the floor spaces between the floors as well as through the attic.
The furnace and natural gas system is a lot more efficient because the hot air can be routed to the right places in the rooms and can be sent through several vents at the same time in the same room to more evenly spread the heat through the room. The same is done in each room, with calculations on how many vents it will take with the size of furnace that is being used so that the each room will be evenly heated and be able to efficiently heat each room. Another benefit is that the same system can also be used to send cool air out through the home and cool it down through the summer time.
The way that your home is heated and cooled also affects the amount of money that you spend each month in the utilities to heat and cool the home. Some other things that you can do to help the cost each month is to make sure that your home is well insulated and that the windows are double pane. Also, utilizing the heat of the sun and the open windows to help heat and cool things naturally can also make the bills go down in cost.