Winter is coming! So I thought I’d generate some maps on how people heat their houses. The top map shows the balance between electricity and gas, which are by far the most common heating methods. Gas values include both utility-provided gas and non-utility gas (e.g., bottles, tanks). The scale shows how many times more households use a given method. For example, the darkest purple shade means a county has at least seven times more houses heated by electricity than gas. The lightest orange shade signifies a county where more households use gas, but there are fewer than twice as many gas users as electricity users. The trend in this map is quite clear – the Northwest and Southeast tend to use electricity, while the rest of the country relies on gas.

The second map shows the plurality (most common, but not necessarily the majority) heating method for each county. The vast majority of counties use gas or electricity as the dominant heating method. However, in the Northeast, fuel oil/kerosene is the mode choice. In some western counties, burning wood is the most common heating method. Finally, in Hawaii, most households don’t have any heating method installed.

Data source: http://factfinder2.census.gov/ (Table B25040)