Heating · method
How We Compare Heating Fuels
Every fuel is turned into the cost of one million Btu of heat delivered into the home: price ÷ (Btu in one unit ÷ 1,000,000) ÷ the system’s efficiency. EIA FAQ 987 gives the first part: “[ (Fuel price per unit) divided by (fuel heat content per unit) ] multiplied by 1,000,000”.
Heat in one unit (EIA)
“Electricity 1 kilowatthour=3,412 Btu Natural gas 1 cubic foot=1,036 Btu 1 therm=100,000 Btu Motor gasoline 1 gallon=120,214 Btu Diesel fuel 1 gallon=137,381 Btu Heating oil 1 gallon=138,500 Btu Propane 1 gallon=91,452 Btu Wood 1 cord=20,000,000 Btu”
| Before efficiency | $ per million Btu of fuel |
|---|---|
| Propane at $1.00 a gallon | $10.93 |
| Heating oil at $1.00 a gallon | $7.22 |
| Electricity at 10¢ a kWh | $29.31 |
Efficiency
- Older systems: the federal minimum (10 CFR 430.32): “Product class AFUE (percent) 1 (A) Non-weatherized gas furnaces (not including mobile home furnaces) 80.0 (B) Mobile home gas furnaces 80.0 (C) Non-weatherized …”; split heat pumps HSPF2 7.5.
- New systems: the median ENERGY STAR certified model: gas and propane furnaces 96%, oil furnaces 87%, heat pumps HSPF2 8.5 (cold-climate 9.0).
- Heat pumps are a range: rated seasonal COP = HSPF2 ÷ 3.412, down to COP 2.03 (the median certified heat pump at 5 °F). At 10¢ a kWh and HSPF2 8.5: $11.76–$14.44 per million Btu.
- Wood stoves: the median lab-tested efficiency of EPA-certified stoves (non-catalytic 71%, catalytic 78%, hybrid 78%). Open fireplaces aren’t covered by that database, so we don’t offer them.
- Electric resistance (baseboard, electric furnace): all of the electricity becomes heat in the home.
Prices
Oil and propane: EIA’s weekly state averages, before taxes, October through March. Natural gas: last winter’s average monthly price (never a summer month, when fixed charges inflate the per-unit price), or the annual average where EIA withheld months. Electricity: EIA’s year-to-date average. Taxes differ, so a gap of a few percent is a tie. Firewood has no official price: you enter yours.
A typical winter
EIA’s 2020 Residential Energy Consumption Survey gives each home’s space-heating fuel use. We use the median home heated mainly with each fuel in your EIA climate region, with the middle half as the range, and spread it over November–March like EIA’s heating degree days. A check in the build: the U.S. median propane and oil homes at last winter’s average prices come out at $1,182 and $1,633, against EIA’s Winter Fuels Outlook household spending of $1,286 and $1,749 (which also counts water heating and cooking).
Use the heating tools → · Site methodology →
Sources and assumptions
- Heating oil and propane: EIA weekly residential propane prices and heating oil prices, week of November 2, 2026 (released 11/4/2026; next 11/12/2026). EIA: “Price in dollars per gallon, excluding taxes.” “Weekly heating oil and propane prices are only collected during the heating season, which extends from October through March.” We show the 38 states EIA surveys weekly for propane and the 21 for heating oil; we don’t claim to cover every state.
- Natural gas: EIA residential natural gas prices (heating-season average of the monthly prices, October 2025–March 2026, where EIA published at least 4 of the 6 months; otherwise the annual average), converted with each state’s heat content of natural gas (Btu per cubic foot, 2025). Summer months are never used.
- Electricity: EIA Electric Power Monthly, average residential price year-to-date average through August 2026.
- Heat content: EIA: “Electricity 1 kilowatthour=3,412 Btu Natural gas 1 cubic foot=1,036 Btu 1 therm=100,000 Btu Motor gasoline 1 gallon=120,214 Btu Diesel fuel 1 gallon=137,381 Btu Heating oil 1 gallon=138,500 Btu Propane 1 gallon=91,452 Btu Wood 1 cord=20,000,000 Btu” Cost per million Btu follows EIA FAQ 987: “[ (Fuel price per unit) divided by (fuel heat content per unit) ] multiplied by 1,000,000”, divided by the system’s efficiency.
- Efficiency: older systems at the federal minimum (10 CFR 430.32: gas and propane furnaces 80.0% AFUE, oil furnaces 83.0%, split heat pumps HSPF2 7.5); new systems at the ENERGY STAR median (certified furnaces: gas/propane 96%, oil 87%; certified heat pumps: HSPF2 8.5, cold-climate 9.0). Heat pumps are shown as a range down to the median COP at 5 °F (2.03, 283,737 certified systems). Wood stoves: EPA certified wood heater database (2020 rule, 417 models, lab-tested HHV efficiency medians: non-catalytic 71%, catalytic 78%, hybrid 78%).
- Firewood: Utah State University Extension, Wood Heating, Table 1 (million Btu per cord of air-dried wood); ranking cross-checked against Indiana DNR, Heating With Firewood. Cord sizes from Indiana DNR: “A standard cord is a stack of wood 4 x 4 x 8 feet.” “A face cord of 16" pieces is actually one third of a standard cord.”
- Typical winter: EIA RECS 2020 microdata (space-heating use of homes heated mainly by each fuel, by EIA climate region), and EIA’s Winter Fuels Outlook heating degree days for the month-by-month split.