Many more people are looking towards alternative heating solutions. Their reasons differ - some people want to try and do their bit for the environment and consume less electricity or fossil fuels; some folk are keen to liberate themselves from paying whatever high market rate for their oil or gas.
Most people hope to lower their ongoing costs because after all they will be investing in a new heating system. The good news is that so many people have been looking at alternatives that the market is really quite mature. This means you can get tried and tested products at good value for money.
For people who just want to use a more sustainable and (potentially) cheaper fuel source old style technology like wood burning hot water heating systems might be a good line of investigation. Though I say old style, the truth is that these furnaces bear little resemblence to those the pioneers cooked on. They are modern and efficient and some are very low maintenance too.
A very smart way to get the most heat out of your electricity is to go with something like a wholesale geothermal heat pump. It means digging into the earth a ways, but these are really efficient heating and cooling systems.
If you live in the right part of the world, solar heating panels could be an option. If you are adventurous, maybe you should investigate really alternative fuel sources, like biomass (compost!) for example...