Answer: The good news is that Nature has provided plenty of free energy to help you heat your house. The bad news is that it can cost a bundle to outfit a home with the systems needed to capture solar energy or heat stored in the ground, which is called geothermal energy.

The large initial investments have kept these types of systems from gaining more market share, experts say. But that could soon change.

"There really will be a tremendous mind-shift this winter when people open their bills and see that their prices have tripled or quadrupled from three years ago," said Jim Croce, the chief executive of NextEnergy, a Detroit-based nonprofit corporation that promotes alternative energy.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, geothermal heat pumps are considered the most efficient, environmentally friendly and cost effective home-heating systems available.

Also known as GeoExchange systems, the heat pumps work by exploiting the differences in temperature between the air and the earth several feet below a house. Heat is captured by water flowing through a series of underground pipes and then brought into the house, where it is transferred to warm air that is sent through your ducts. In the summer, the system works as air conditioning with the heat from your home transferred into the ground or used to heat hot water.

Here's the catch: The systems can cost about $7,500, according to the Department of Energy, much more than the price of a traditional heating and air conditioning system. But according to the DOE, if you include the costs in your mortgage, you'll be saving money from the get-go because your energy consumption will be reduced by 25 to 75 percent.

Setting up a solar-heating system can also be expensive and require dozens of years to recoup an upfront investment. But many states have incentives in place; the Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy, run by the North Carolina Solar Center and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, lists federal, state and local programs.

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