When I baked in pots, I used a lodge cast iron dutch oven, non enameled. I think these are the best. I've used enameled le creuset and cheaper knockoffs. They work well, but they discolor from the high heat. I like the low walls on the dutch oven as well. The downside is that you get a little rust sometimes. It didn't bother me, however.
I used to bake in ceramic (Romertopf). I would pre-soak them, then pre-heat. They turned out really well, but I was always afraid of breaking them. I didn't see an improvement over cast iron.
Now, I use two pizza steels in my oven and bake on a half-sheet tray. I can get more bread done faster and can play with more fun shapes. For steam, I pour 1/2 a wine bottle of hot water (tap) into a half sheet tray filled with broken pizza stone pieces.
During the summer, I try to bake bread after midnight, open the windows, and run the fan through the entire process. Even if it is slightly warmer outside, it pays off for me. Its a terrible feeling running the AC while baking. It hasn't been hot enough for me to do it, but you could also try packing more loaves in your oven so you can limit the time the oven is on. For instance, I often bake in aluminum cake pans so I can fit an extra loaf in the oven. If I bought more of these cake pans, I could probably do all of my bread in a single batch instead of the three I currently use.
Something to consider is baking bread outside on a grill. I've done it on a propane grill before. Its hard to get the top well browned but its something to try. I used to do baguettes on the grill. You want a large amount of cast iron in the grill to try and keep the heat high. I've done pizza or flatbreads or fougasse on the grill and those tend to do better. In my opinion, you can use the same dough for pizza/flatbread as normal bread and gluten development and fermentation translates well between bread and pizza.
