Winter Heating Fuel Budget Planner by State and ZIP

Informational only. Not for navigation, safety, emergency, financial, medical, or legal decisions. Check the official source before you rely on it.

Estimates, not a quote or a bill. Your supplier's price, your home, and this winter's weather will differ.

What it does

Enter your state, your heating fuel, and either your home size or last winter's usage. You get a month-by-month budget for October through April with:

• your area's average heating degree days (last 10 complete winters by default, statewide or at your ZIP code),
• the latest public residential price for your fuel in your state,
• estimated fuel use, estimated cost, and a running total,
• one season total row.

Fuels: propane, heating oil, natural gas, electricity (resistance or heat pump), plus kerosene, wood pellets, and cord wood with your own price.

How to use it (no code)

1. Click Try for free or Start.
2. Type your two-letter state code, for example OH. Add your ZIP code if you want weather for your exact area.
3. Pick your fuel type.
4. Enter your heated square feet and pick poor, average, or good insulation. Or, if you know how much fuel you used last winter, enter it in Past winter usage. That is more accurate.
5. Optional: enter your own price per gallon, Mcf, kWh, ton, or cord.
6. Click Start. Results appear in the table in under a minute. Export to Excel, CSV, or JSON.

Example input

{"state": "OH", "fuelType": "propane", "homeSqft": 1800, "insulation": "average"}

Output fields

Each row has the same fields in the same order. Missing values are null.

Field	Meaning
rowType	month, season total, or error
monthName, month	Month of the coming winter
estimatedCost, cumulativeCost	Estimated dollars for the month and running total
usageUnits, unit	Estimated fuel use (gallons, Mcf, kWh, tons, or cords)
pricePerUnit, priceLevel, priceAsOf, priceSeries	Price used, whether it is your state, your region, the U.S. average, or your input, and its date
normalHdd, hddYears, weatherArea	Average heating degree days (base 65 F) and the years and area they cover
method, assumptions, note	How usage was estimated and any limits
sourceUrl, hddSourceUrl, credit	Where the numbers came from
retrievedAt, retrievedAtLocal	When the data was pulled (ISO 8601 with offset, and U.S. Central time)
qcStatus, qcNotes, error	Self-check result (ok or flagged) and any error

How the estimate works

• Home size method: square feet x a heat loss factor (poor 10, average 7, good 4.5 BTU per square foot per degree day) x degree days, divided by the fuel's energy content and your system efficiency. The factors are typical values, not a measurement of your home.
• Past usage method: your winter total is spread across October to April in proportion to degree days.
• Energy content used: propane 91,452 BTU per gallon, heating oil 138,500, kerosene 135,000, natural gas 1,036,000 per Mcf, electricity 3,412 per kWh, wood pellets 16.5 million per ton, cord wood 20 million per cord.
• Default efficiency: propane and gas 90%, oil and kerosene 83%, pellets 80%, cord wood 65%, electric resistance 100%. Use about 250% for a heat pump.

Limits

• Propane and heating oil prices come from a weekly government survey that runs about October to March and covers some states. States without their own price get their region's average, or the U.S. average. The row says which.
• The latest weekly price is used for every month. Winter prices often rise.
• Natural gas uses the most recent published price for the same calendar month (last season). Some states withhold some months.
• Electricity uses the latest monthly statewide average, which lags about 3 months.
• No free public state price exists for kerosene, wood pellets, or cord wood, so you must enter your own.
• Statewide weather is an area average, not weighted by where people live. Use a ZIP code for your area.
• Hot water, cooking, and dryer use are not included.

Disclaimer

Informational only. Not for navigation, safety, emergency, financial, medical, or legal decisions. Check the official source before you rely on it.

This is an independent tool by Standard Work Co. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any government agency named here. Agency names are used only to say where the data comes from. The data comes from public government sources and is passed through as published, only reformatted. Government data can be preliminary, late, missing, revised, or wrong, and this tool can fail too. This output is not an official government record. Provided "as is" with no warranty of any kind, including accuracy, completeness, or timeliness. You are responsible for checking the official source before acting on anything here. Liability is limited as stated in the Apify Standard Actor Contract for this tool.

Heating budget: these are estimates, not a price quote, a bill, or financial advice. Call your fuel supplier or utility for a current price. Have heating equipment serviced by a qualified technician.

Data sources and credits

• Fuel prices: U.S. Energy Information Administration, public domain. Weekly heating oil and propane residential prices (State Heating Oil and Propane Program), monthly residential natural gas prices, and Electric Power Monthly Table 5.6.A. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (date shown in each row).
• Heating degree days: Applied Climate Information System (RCC-ACIS) gridded daily data, NRCC interpolated grid.
• ZIP code points: U.S. Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, public domain.