With today's high efficient heating units, you can have something that looks nice and saves money on heating bills.

The majority of heating units burn wood, gas or pellet fuel, using a free standing unit or an insert unit. No matter what fuel you burn or if it's a free standing unit or an insert, you can save money on heating bills by zone heating.

Turn down your furnace and enjoy comforting warmth in the rooms you spend time in.

Your open masonry fireplace can allow as much as 90 percent of your fire's heat to escape out the chimney. By adding a wood, pellet or gas insert, you will keep the heat in your home.

The most energy efficient fuel to burn is wood. Burning with wood is renewable, affordable and beautiful.

Whether you buy your wood or collect it yourself, you will notice the savings within its first year.

Pellet units burn compressed sawdust pellets. Heat from a pellet unit also gives off warm, cozy heat and are easy and convenient to run.

However, if your electricity goes out, so does the pellet unit. Pellet prices can fluctuate depending on supply and demand.

Gas units have the most design choices for any type of décor. Instead of burning gas logs in an open fireplace and having the heat escape up the chimney, gas inserts keep heat in the room.

Also, homeowners can save up to $1,500 with the biomass burn tax credit. Any wood or pellet unit that is 75 percent combustion efficient qualifies for the credit.

However, that ends this year.

This article was submitted by Ferguson's Free Energy on Route 228 in Mars.