Home Heating
Your furnace does not burn dollars — it burns BTUs, and then your wallet catches up. This is the no-nonsense version of rural home heating: oil, propane, wood, pellets, and heat pumps, what each costs to run in dollars per million BTU, and how to compare fuel prices fairly. Written for homeowners, not HVAC salespeople. More guides are on the way.
Heating Fuel Cost Calculator
Enter your fuel prices and equipment efficiency — compare oil, propane, gas, heat pumps, wood, and pellets in $/MMBTU, side by side.
Know your system
How rural heating works — oil, propane, wood, pellets, and heat pumps — and the one number that compares them all.
How Home Heating Works for Rural Homes
Oil, propane, wood, pellets, or a heat pump? How each rural heating system works, what it costs to run in $/MMBTU, and how to compare fuel prices fairly.
Pairs with
When the power goes out, so does the heat
Every electric heating option — heat pumps, electric furnaces, and even pellet stoves — dies with the grid. Know your backup power before the January outage, and get the house winter-ready either way.
Browse the Backup Power guides →
How to winterize your well and septic system →