U.S. home heating is fractured in surprising ways: Look up your neighborhood

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

Propane

Oil

Wood

Other

Natural gas

47%

5%

2%

2%

40%

4%

Source: 2017-2021 American Community Survey

Share of homes heated with ...

Electricity

Propane

Oil

Wood

Other

Natural gas

47%

5%

2%

2%

40%

4%

Source: 2017-2021 American Community Survey

Share of homes heated with ...

Electricity

Propane

Oil

Wood

Other

Natural gas

47%

5%

2%

2%

40%

4%

Source: 2017-2021 American Community Survey

Share of homes heated with ...

Electricity

Wood

Other

Natural gas

Propane

Oil

47%

2%

40%

5%

4%

2%

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

Oil

Propane

Natural

gas

Boston

New York

Chicago

D.C.

Atlanta

Dallas

Electricity

Houston

Miami

Seattle

Wood

San Francisco

Denver

Los Angeles

Oil

Map shows fuel most used

for home heating

Oil

Propane

Natural gas

Minneapolis

Boston

New York

Philadelphia

Chicago

D.C.

St. Louis

Atlanta

Dallas

Electricity

New Orleans

Houston

Miami

Seattle

Wood

San Francisco

Denver

Los Angeles

Phoenix

Oil

Anchorage

Honolulu

Map shows fuel most used

for home heating

Seattle

Oil

Propane

Natural

gas

Minneapolis

Boston

New York

Chicago

San Francisco

D.C.

Denver

St. Louis

Los Angeles

Atlanta

Phoenix

Dallas

Oil

Electricity

Houston

Anchorage

Honolulu

Miami

Seattle

Oil

Map shows fuel most used

for home heating

Propane

Natural gas

Minneapolis

Minneapolis

Boston

Wood

New York

Philadelphia

Chicago

Chicago

San Francisco

San Francisco

Denver

Denver

D.C.

St. Louis

St. Louis

Los Angeles

Los Angeles

San Diego

San Diego

Phoenix

Phoenix

Atlanta

Atlanta

Dallas

Dallas

Electricity

New

Orleans

Oil

Houston

Houston

Anchorage

Honolulu

Miami

Seattle

Oil

Propane

Map shows fuel most used

for home heating

Natural gas

Minneapolis

Boston

Wood

Detroit

New York

Philadelphia

Chicago

San Francisco

Denver

Washington, D.C.

St. Louis

Los Angeles

San Diego

Phoenix

Atlanta

Dallas

Electricity

Oil

Houston

New Orleans

Tampa

Anchorage

Honolulu

Miami

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.

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.

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.

“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.