Until recently, you might not have focused much on whether you need gas, oil or electricity to warm your house. But in America’s highly fractured energy landscape, the surprising ways our home heating is split could speed — or slow — our shift away from fossil fuels.
There are four main ways that Americans heat their homes: electricity, natural gas, propane or fuel oil. The vast majority of U.S. homes, nearly 90 percent, get their warmth from either electricity — in the form of old, inefficient electric resistance heaters or new, more efficient heat pumps — or from natural gas that is piped into homes and burned in a natural gas furnace. The remaining homes use propane — a fossil fuel created by natural gas processing or oil refining — or fuel oil, both of which need to be delivered to homes by truck.
Share of homes heated with ...
Electricity
Natural gas
Source: 2017-2021 American Community Survey
Share of homes heated with ...
Electricity
Natural gas
Source: 2017-2021 American Community Survey
Share of homes heated with ...
Electricity
Natural gas
Source: 2017-2021 American Community Survey
Share of homes heated with ...
Electricity
Natural gas
Source: 2017-2021 American Community Survey
But these fuels are not evenly distributed across the entire country.
Thanks to a combination of local climates, electricity prices and historical accident, America’s home heating system, like the country’s politics, is deeply divided. In the South, thanks to government funding from almost a century ago and mild climates, many rely on electricity to stay warm. The Midwest is dominated by natural gas and, in rural areas, propane. In the Northeast, despite high prices and inconvenience, fuel oil still heats many homes.
Map shows fuel most used
for home heating
Natural
gas
Electricity
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Map shows fuel most used
for home heating
Natural gas
Minneapolis
Philadelphia
Electricity
New Orleans
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Map shows fuel most used
for home heating
Natural
gas
Minneapolis
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Electricity
Map shows fuel most used
for home heating
Natural gas
Minneapolis
Minneapolis
Philadelphia
San Francisco
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
Electricity
New
Orleans
Map shows fuel most used
for home heating
Natural gas
Minneapolis
Philadelphia
San Francisco
Washington, D.C.
Los Angeles
Electricity
New Orleans
How did something as simple as how we heat our homes become so fractured — and what will that mean as the country struggles to move away from fossil fuels?
The country’s map of home heating shows that, as the Biden administration works to electrify America, the regions that will have the easiest time — and save the most cash in the process — are ones where many politicians don’t embrace President Biden’s policies.
Search the map See how homes are heated in your neighborhood
Hover on the map to explore the data
Map shows the fuel most used in each census tract
Note: Shares of homes are estimates based on a sample of the population. Percentages may not add to 100 due to rounding.
Take the South, for example. In 1960, only 2 percent of homes in the United States were heated by electricity. By 2000, around 29 percent were — and most of them were in the South.
Lucas Davis, an energy economist at the University of California at Berkeley, says that the South’s climate and energy costs spurred rapid adoption of electric heating. Starting in the 1960s, when developers were building new homes across the South, electricity prices started to fall significantly — due in part to the Tennessee Valley Authority’s generous power supply. Today, electricity in the South still tends to be cheaper than in many other areas of the country.
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At the same time, the South’s mild winters also made electricity an attractive option. “You need less heat in the Southeast,” Davis said. Natural gas, he explained, is generally cheaper than electric resistance per unit of heating — but it comes with much higher capital costs. In a region where heat might only be required for a month or two out of the year, electric heating wins out financially. “Energy prices,” Davis said, “are by far the most important factor.”
In colder regions of the country, however, the calculus was different. When homes were being built across the Midwest and Northeast, electric heating was still limited to expensive electric resistance heaters or first-generation heat pumps, which didn’t work when temperatures dipped below freezing. (Modern air-source heat pumps now function well below freezing temperatures.)
That left a few viable options: natural gas in pipelines or truck-delivered liquid fuels such as propane or fuel oil. In more urban areas, natural gas made financial sense. Natural gas pipelines are capital-intensive: Laying a pipeline to service five homes on a one-mile stretch doesn’t make much financial sense, but laying a pipeline to service 1,000 homes could bring in tons of cash.
Share of homes using natural gas and electricity in counties with cold vs. warm winters
Average winter low temperature →More electricity usedWarmer wintersMore natural gas usedWarmer wintersMore natural gas usedColder wintersMore electricity usedColder winters↑ More natural gas↓ More electricityNote: Circle size represents the number of homes in each county. Counties in Hawaii are not shown.
“The question becomes — is it dense enough for us to build the gas infrastructure?” said Lacey Tan, a manager for carbon-free buildings at the energy think tank RMI. “And not just population density, but how connected the homes are in a region.”
Homes using fuel oil or propane, on the other hand, often sat in rural areas without an easy connection to a natural gas network. And in the Northeast, many homes were also built before 1920 — a time when fuel oil furnaces were commonplace in new construction.
West
↑ More natural gas↓ More electricityNote: Each circle is a county.
There is an irony to America’s current home heating map. The areas that now depend on natural gas — urban, heavily populated areas in states such as New York, California, Illinois — also tend to have the most Democratic voters. In these blue states and urban centers, climate-focused Democrats are trying to ban gas hookups in new buildings.
This means that the areas with politicians most willing to ditch fossil fuels also face the most entrenched interests opposed to it. The switch from natural gas to a heat pump will often save money, but the amounts saved vary by location: In bitterly cold areas, homeowners may also require a backup source of heat that costs more. “The economics get a bit harder to pinpoint,” Tan said.
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On the other hand, Republican strongholds — the South and rural areas around the country — stand to gain the most from switching to electricity in general, and heat pumps in particular. In the South, where homes are already electrified, switching from old resistance heaters to heat pumps would save homeowners money. Heat pumps, because they move heat instead of creating it, are on average three to four times more efficient than resistance heaters. They also provide built-in air conditioners.
Share of homes using ...
Natural gas
Minneapolis
San Francisco
Washington, D.C.
Los Angeles
Electricity
Washington, D.C.
Minneapolis
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Albuquerque
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Albuquerque
Los Angeles
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Albuquerque
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Minneapolis
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Washington, D.C.
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Minneapolis
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Albuquerque
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Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
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In rural areas, moving away from fuel oil and propane will also save cash. According to the nonprofit Rewiring America, homes currently heated by fuel oil will save, on average, $949 per year by transitioning to an electric heat pump; those heated by propane will save around $680 a year. For those homeowners, switching to heat pumps is “a no-brainer. It’s a win,” Tan said.
But the transition won’t be easy. In many cold areas of the country, people have been told for years that heat pumps or electric heating won’t keep them fully warm. Contractors aren’t always knowledgeable about heat pumps or how to install them. In places where the economics are more marginal — that is, in places mostly heated by natural gas — more incentives might be needed at the local or state level. The federal government has provided one: The Inflation Reduction Act has offered $2,000 tax credits for heat pumps and will soon add upfront rebates for low-income households.
Ultimately, to meet the nation’s goals of zeroing out carbon pollution, every home currently heated by natural gas, propane or fuel oil needs to be moved over to electricity. And the electricity grid also needs to be shifted to cleaner sources such as wind, solar and geothermal energy, to ensure that the electricity flowing to those heat pumps doesn’t warm the planet.
But disparate areas of the country face different challenges — and that will shape who can move fastest in the race to electrify. “There needs to be more thought put into certain regions,” Tan said. “But that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.”
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