Heating Cost Comparison Calculator
Enter the prices on your bills and your system's efficiency. You'll see what the same amount of heat costs with each fuel, and what last winter would have cost with each system.
- EIA fuel heat content
- Your own prices
- Season cost from last winter's bills
2 Cost of heat
Updates as you type| System | Price | Efficiency | Per million Btu | Last winter's heat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Natural gas furnace (yours) | $1.48 per therm | 95% | $15.58 | $1,036 |
| Electric heat pump | 18.16¢ per kWh | COP 2.29 | $23.28 | $1,548 |
| Propane furnace | $2.83 per gallon | 95% | $32.57 | $2,166 |
| Heating oil furnace | $5.92 per gallon | 87% | $49.13 | $3,267 |
| Electric baseboard or furnace | 18.16¢ per kWh | 100% | $53.22 | $3,539 |
Ten therms of natural gas hold one million Btu; a 95% furnace delivers 950,000 Btu of it. Prices change with the season and the region, so enter the prices from your own bills for the most accurate answer. The heat pump figure uses its seasonal rating; in very cold weather it delivers less heat per kWh.
Quick answer
To compare heating costs, divide each fuel's price by the heat it delivers. At the latest US average prices from EIA (gas 2025, electricity August 2026, propane and oil mid-November 2026), a million Btu of heat costs about $15.58 from a 95% gas furnace, $23.28 from a heat pump rated 7.8 HSPF2, $32.57 from propane, $49.13 from heating oil and $53.22 from electric baseboard heat.
Cost of a season of heat by system
| Heat delivered | Gas | Heat pump | Propane | Oil | Baseboard |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 million Btu | $312 | $466 | $651 | $983 | $1,064 |
| 40 million Btu | $623 | $931 | $1,303 | $1,965 | $2,129 |
| 60 million Btu | $935 | $1,397 | $1,954 | $2,948 | $3,193 |
| 80 million Btu | $1,246 | $1,863 | $2,606 | $3,930 | $4,258 |
US average prices from EIA (gas 2025 annual, electricity Aug 2026, propane and oil week of Nov 9, 2026), 95% gas and propane furnaces, 87% oil furnace, 7.8 HSPF2 heat pump. Enter your own prices above for your area.
How to compare heating fuels
Fuels are sold in different units: therms, gallons and kilowatt-hours. To compare them, turn each price into the cost of the same amount of heat. This calculator uses one million Btu of heat delivered into the house:
- Find the heat in one unit of fuel. EIA lists 100,000 Btu per therm of natural gas, 91,452 Btu per gallon of propane, 138,500 Btu per gallon of heating oil and 3,412 Btu per kWh of electricity.
- Multiply by the system's efficiency to get the heat that reaches your rooms.
- Divide the price by that heat and multiply by one million.
For gas at $1.48 per therm in a 95% furnace: $1.48 ÷ (100,000 × 0.95) × 1,000,000 = $15.58 per million Btu. (EIA's gas price is per thousand cubic feet, which holds 1,036,000 Btu, or 10.36 therms.)
Efficiency of each system
- Gas, propane and oil furnaces are rated by AFUE, the share of the fuel's heat that reaches the house over a season. ENERGY STAR gas furnaces are rated 95% or higher in the South and 97% in the North, and oil furnaces 87% or higher. Older furnaces are often rated lower; the label on yours gives its rating.
- Electric baseboard heaters and electric furnaces turn all the electricity they use into heat. EIA counts electric resistance heat as 100% efficient.
- Heat pumps move heat from outdoors instead of making it, so they deliver more heat than the electricity they use. Their seasonal rating, HSPF2, is Btu of heat per watt-hour of electricity. Divide it by 3.412 to get the average heat out per unit of electricity in: a 7.8 HSPF2 heat pump delivers about 2.29 times the heat of a baseboard heater for the same power, on average over a season.
Heat pumps deliver less as it gets colder outside. To earn ENERGY STAR's cold-climate label, a heat pump must still reach a COP of at least 1.75 at 5°F, meaning 1.75 units of heat per unit of electricity, and keep at least 70% of the heating capacity it has at 47°F.
Worked example: a season of heat
A house burned 700 therms of gas last winter in a 95% furnace. That delivered 700 × 100,000 × 0.95 = 66.5 million Btu of heat. At the prices above, the same heat would cost:
| System | Per million Btu | For the season |
|---|---|---|
| Natural gas furnace | $15.58 | $1,036 |
| Electric heat pump | $23.28 | $1,548 |
| Propane furnace | $32.57 | $2,166 |
| Heating oil furnace | $49.13 | $3,267 |
| Electric baseboard or furnace | $53.22 | $3,539 |
The cheapest fuel depends on your prices. Heating oil cost $2.19 a gallon more in mid-November 2026 than a year earlier, according to EIA, and electricity prices differ a lot from state to state, so use your own bills.
Where the default prices come from
The starting prices are US averages from the Energy Information Administration: natural gas for 2025 ($15.34 per thousand cubic feet, about $1.48 per therm), residential electricity for August 2026 (18.16¢ per kWh), and propane and heating oil for the week of November 9, 2026 ($2.83 and $5.92 per gallon). EIA's propane and heating oil prices leave out taxes and are collected only from October through March.
Frequently asked questions
Is it cheaper to heat with gas or electric?
At the latest EIA US average prices, a 95% gas furnace delivers heat for about $15.58 per million Btu, against $23.28 for a 7.8 HSPF2 heat pump and $53.22 for electric baseboard heat. Local prices vary a lot, so enter yours.
Is propane cheaper than electric heat?
Propane in a 95% furnace costs about $32.57 per million Btu at the US average price for mid-November 2026, less than electric baseboard heat ($53.22) but more than a heat pump ($23.28) at average electricity prices.
How many Btu are in a therm, a gallon of propane and a kWh?
A therm of gas is 100,000 Btu and a kWh is 3,412 Btu. A gallon of propane holds 91,452 Btu and a gallon of heating oil 138,500, by EIA's figures.
What does AFUE mean?
Annual fuel utilization efficiency: the share of the fuel's heat that a furnace delivers to the house over a season. A 95% AFUE furnace turns 95% of the gas it burns into heat for the house.
How do I turn HSPF2 into efficiency?
Divide by 3.412. HSPF2 is Btu of heat per watt-hour of electricity, and a watt-hour holds 3.412 Btu, so a 7.8 HSPF2 heat pump averages about 2.3 units of heat for each unit of electricity.
Last reviewed 2026-11-13. See how we calculate for our sources and assumptions.