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Separately controlled HVAC for each room. At the very least, pull a wire to vents so that you can later install a remote controlled vents.
Where I come from, the traditional way is to heat the ground floor with kitchen and living room up to normal temperatures, and heat the (mostly) sleeping rooms upstairs only with a reduced temperature (traditionally only the “waste” heat from downstairs, but nowadays all rooms have usually individually temperature-controlled heating and it's just set to a lower temperature). This helps reduce heating costs.I've always wondered how you can live in a house that has not a controlled temperature for every individual room. (At least in an area with cold winters.)
Gerhard F
I'm not sure what you think makes living in a house with a single control more difficult, we just end up wasting energy heating the whole house. The heating system (forced air is most common in my area) is designed to heat the house evenly. A well designed system accomplishes this task quite well, with perhaps a degree of deviation from the warmest to coldest area of the house. Unfortunately designing the system well isn't that straightforward, and is NOT the cheapest way to do things, so you'll often hear of houses where one room is always much colder then the others.My house is a good example. It is designed very well from a heating point of view except for ONE room, which is always 2 degrees colder then the rest of the house. The reason being it's the furthest from the furnace and it's vent bends so many times the air velocity at the register is quite small. We tried a few things (i.e. putting an inline fan) but settled on a separate electric heater just for that room.
Forced air heating has one MAJOR advantage over almost any other heating system: adding central air is a breeze. In many areas of the world that need major heat in the winter AC isn't much of a concern in the summer. However where I live (Toronto, Canada) our humidity is very high in the summer making AC almost a necessity.
Herbert G
Besides the waste, it's exactly the fact that it heats all rooms with the same temperature air that I find very uncomfortable. I like it that my sleeping room is cooler than the living room, the kitchen (which often has additional heat sources) doesn't need as much heating, and so on.
Individually controlling each room's temperature may not be popular in North America, but I think it's quite comfortable. (And wastes less energy, of course.) I don't think you have to abandon forced air to do it.
Gerhard F