It's a problem if the power goes out when it is cold as our heating will not work even though it is gas. Heating with electricity would drain a battery pretty quickly. We have an ethanol stove, but it is not enough to heat the whole house.
It is about 2C today, but sunny so we are getting some solar power. We have south facing windows that get us some warmth from the low sun.
In the past couple of winters we've been relying more on heating blankets and heating pads than the main heating in the house. A two-story house means upstairs is hot and the lower level is cold. So, each of us has a small space heater and heating pads to keep things simple. That way the house heat can at a lower temp to keep better parity between upstairs and downstairs.
These type of issues are why two-story homes should come default with two units. One for each level of the house. No matter whether it is winter or summer, the difference between temps is noticable.
Ideally our house would have separate heating circuits for each floor as the bedrooms do not need warming during the day. I could fit valves with timers to optimise this. The house is pretty well insulated, so the savings may not be huge.
A lot of old houses just leak heat, so it gets expensive. I know some people use heated jackets so they can turn the heating down.
Yep, this old house has a sun room with single pane windows. I put up thick curtains between the two access points between the sun room and the main part of the house to close them in times of extreme heat and extreme cold. It works well enough for now.
It's below freezing here tonight, so I'll be sure to close all the curtains as it helps. My sister lives in an old house in Scotland. I think they are limited on what alterations they can make to 'preserve the character', but homes have to be liveable.