Heat pump running cost in Maryland
In Maryland, a heat pump costs less to run than heating oil, propane and electric baseboard. There is no gas comparison on this page, because EIA has not published one. All three comparisons are below, along with what is missing and why.
Maryland energy prices, 2025-12, 2026-01, 2026-02
The December 2025 to February 2026 EIA heating season mean, pulled . Every figure on this page is in the CSV and JSON download, published under CC BY 4.0.
| Figure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Residential electricity | $0.201/kWh | EIA, by state |
| Residential natural gas | not published | EIA season incomplete |
| Propane | $3.36/gal | EIA, PADD 1B, Central Atlantic |
| Heating oil | $3.92/gal | EIA, PADD 1B, Central Atlantic |
| Annual heating degree days | 2,376 | EIA, SAC division |
Maryland is one of six states EIA has not published a complete December to February residential gas price for, so it carries no gas ranking. Everything else on this page is real Maryland data.
Cost to deliver one kWh of heat in Maryland
| Current system | Fuel price | $ per kWh heat | Heat pump verdict | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Propane furnace | $3.36/gallon | 0.1320 | Cheaper to run | 42% |
| Heating oil furnace or boiler | $3.92/gallon | 0.1163 | Cheaper to run | 35% |
| Electric resistance (baseboard or furnace) | $0.201/kWh | 0.2009 | Cheaper to run | 62% |
| Heat pump, COP 2.64 | $0.201/kWh | 0.0762 |
Assumes a cold climate heat pump at HSPF2 11.0 with 10% of heat from electric resistance backup. Propane and heating oil are published by EIA regionally rather than by state, so those are the nearest regional figures. Change any of it on the calculator.
Rough monthly cost in Maryland
| System | Winter month | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Heat pump, effective COP 2.64 | $122 | $764 |
An 1,800 sq ft home of typical construction, at 2,376 annual heating degree days for the SAC census division. The square foot coefficient behind this is a rule of thumb rather than a measurement and can be wrong by half in either direction. How this is worked out, and a better method if you have a year of bills.
What this page does not tell you
Running cost only, at state average prices. It excludes equipment and installation cost, rebates, and the fact that a heat pump also replaces an air conditioner. State averages hide large differences between utilities inside Maryland, and this page cannot know your balance point or how much backup heat your system would actually use, which is the input that moves the answer most.
The closest reported households to Maryland
No household in this dataset is in Maryland. The one below is in the South Atlantic census division, which is the group Maryland's heating degree day normal comes from, so the climate assumption behind their figures is the same one used on this page.
| Household | Floor area | kWh | Wh per sq ft per HDD | Worked through in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virginia heat pump |
not given | 2,300 January |
cannot compute | the household dataset |
Watt hours per square foot per heating degree day, which is how this site makes houses of different sizes in different climates comparable. Households with no identified fault sit between 0.53 and 0.92. The full dataset, the method behind that figure, and what was wrong in every household above the band.
A Maryland household would be more use than any of these. If you heat with a heat pump here, a winter month's kWh, your floor area and the month it covers is enough, and it can be sent here. If you want to check your own figure first, the winter bill guide walks through the subtraction.
Where to go from here
Because EIA publishes no complete gas price for Maryland, this page cannot tell you whether gas would be cheaper, and it does not guess. What it can tell you is that the heat pump beats heating oil, propane and electric baseboard here, which covers most of what Maryland actually heats with. A dual fuel system is still worth reading about if you do have gas.
If you already have a heat pump and the bill is higher than you expected, start with the four things that make a winter bill run high and how to tell which one is yours. If somebody has told you your usage is insane, the questions people actually ask when the bill arrives covers what that comparison is usually missing.
If you are still choosing, the comparison depends on what you are replacing: a gas furnace, propane, heating oil, or electric baseboards, where the heat pump wins by a wide margin in every state including this one.
And if you want to check the arithmetic rather than take it, every constant and limitation is listed, the data is rebuilt from EIA on a documented schedule, and the things this site has got wrong are published rather than quietly edited.
The reasoning behind these numbers
The verdict at the top of this page turns on one threshold, and that threshold is set by your equipment rather than by your climate, which is the single most misunderstood thing about heat pump running cost. The price it is compared against comes from EIA, averaged across December to February, and using any other window inflates the gas price enough to flip the verdict in fifteen states. This site published that mistake before catching it.