Home Heating Cost
Estimate the monthly cost of heating a home from its size.
About Home Heating Cost
The heat load of a home is its area times a per-square-foot demand. Dividing the delivered energy by system efficiency gives fuel input, which sets the bill. Heating is usually the largest home energy cost, and efficiency plus home size are the two levers that most change it.
Formula
Home Heating Cost
Cost = (area x BTU/sq ft x hours x days) / efficiency x price per million BTU
- efficiency
- How much of the fuel energy turns into heat
Worked example
With the default values below, Home Heating Cost returns Design Heat Load of 52,500. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.
Inputs used
- Heated areaminimum 0 sq ft
- 1,500 sq ft
- Heat load per sq ftminimum 0 BTU/sq ft
- 35 BTU/sq ft
- Heating hours/dayminimum 0 hours
- 12 hours
- Fuel costminimum 0 $/million BTU
- 15 $/million BTU
- System efficiencyaccepts 10–100 %
- 80 %
Results
- Design Heat Load
- 52,500 BTU/hr
- Monthly Fuel Input
- 23,969,138 BTU
- Monthly Heating Cost
- $359.54
- Annual Heating Cost
- $4,314.44
Step by step
- 1Values used
- 2Home Heating Cost
- 3Design Heat Load= 52,500 BTU/hr
- 4Monthly Fuel Input= 23,969,138 BTU
- 5Monthly Heating Cost= 359.54
- 6Annual Heating Cost= 4,314.44
Assumptions and limits
- The result is derived only from the 5 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
- In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax or compounding frequency into account.
- Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.
How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is Home Heating Cost calculated?
Cost = (area x BTU/sq ft x hours x days) / efficiency x price per million BTU The heat load of a home is its area times a per-square-foot demand. Dividing the delivered energy by system efficiency gives fuel input, which sets the bill.
Why does Home Heating Cost matter?
Heating is usually the largest home energy cost, and efficiency plus home size are the two levers that most change it.
What values do I need to enter?
This calculator takes 5 inputs: Heated area, Heat load per sq ft, Heating hours/day, Fuel cost, System efficiency. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.