Your Heating Bills May Leave You ‘Speechless’ After Arctic Blast
When Tracie Klossner opened her utility bill this month, she walked over to her thermostat and turned the temperature down a few degrees.
A native of Rochester, New York, Klossner is no stranger to harsh winters. But the consecutive days of temperatures that didn’t crack the 20s and dipped below zero were longer than Klossner, 54, is used to. It appears on his bill for the month ending Feb. 2, he charged more than $720 for his 2,600-square-foot single-family home.
“I was speechless,” said Klossner, a purchasing manager at a small manufacturing company.
As millions of Americans flee what forecasters say was the coldest onslaught of arctic air of the winter season, now comes the shock of utility costs after extreme heat stops the fight against the cold, though experts say the causes of those high costs are often more complex than cold weather.
Several cold air cycles have spread across much of the eastern part of the country in recent weeks. A powerful and deadly winter storm brought snow, ice and cold over the weekend of Jan. 24 across the Midwest, Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. Then, on the weekend of Feb. 7, the coldest heat of the winter however dropped temperatures in the Northeast to single digits or below zero, wind chills were recorded as low as minus 30 degrees due to extreme heat.
Prolonged sub-freezing temperatures prevented the ice pack from melting, which reflected sunlight and limited natural warming. That keeps the air cold and energy demand high, AccuWeather reports.
“Furnaces and heat pumps have been running almost non-stop to keep homes, apartments and businesses warm during this bitterly cold winter,” said AccuWeather meteorologist Jonathan Porter. “This unrelenting cold has compounded the challenges that many people have been facing this winter.”
Colder temperatures increase the need for heating systems
The average heating demand in regions that experienced the cold blast is estimated to be 115% to 150% above normal, according to an AccuWeather study. Heating costs can vary greatly depending on the type of heat source and location. Electricity is the most expensive heating source this winter, AccuWeather reports.
More than half of Americans are likely to see higher heating bills because of the cold, Porter said.
Thirty percent to 40% of New England homes rely on oil for home heating, which involves filling a tank that can last for a while. Sticker shock may not be as high for those homes, because they would have been full before the season started, AccuWeather reports.
Electric bills during the nearly 25-day cold spell were expected to run hundreds of dollars more than normal for some households, Porter said.
“The United States has not had a winter with this many dangerous impacts and costly disruptions since 2021,” Porter said.
Klossner uses a combination of electricity and gas to heat his home, with an electric furnace, water tank and natural gas stove. Her $724.28 bill in February was not both, billed by the same utility company, and is more than $100 more than her bill from the same time last year, and $300 more than her bill in 2023.
Klossner usually keeps her thermostat set at 71 degrees, but after seeing her bill this month, she said she tries for 68 degrees.
“There’s nothing in my budget that covers a $750 electric bill,” Klossner said, adding that he doesn’t know how low-income families can afford bills like this.
Utility bills were already rising
The cold snap comes as Americans in many parts of the country are already expected to see higher utility costs, according to policy and advocacy groups. Household utility costs are set to increase 41% from 2020 to 2025, according to a September study by JD Power, based on electricity, gas and water prices for the second half of the year.
This winter, home heating costs are expected to jump about 9.2%, according to the policy group National Energy Assistance Directors Association. Electric heating costs are expected to increase by 12.2%, while natural gas costs are expected to increase by 8.4%, the group said.
“On average, households are expected to spend $995 on heating this winter, an increase of $84 from last year,” said a NEADA report released in January.
The rising costs are the result of a combination of factors, the report said, including higher interest rates that increase the cost of financing power plants, rising natural gas costs, higher demand for electricity in part due to data centers, aging infrastructure and declining government subsidies for renewable energy.
According to an analysis by the group PowerLines, electric and gas companies have requested about $31 billion in 2025, more than double what they requested in 2024.
Klossner said he has been seeing a steady increase in his debts in recent years. The costs baffle him but he feels there is little he can do as a homeowner who has no control over rising prices and is dependent on his utilities.
“Feeling powerless and anger are the two things I’m left with.”
Contributor: Daniel de Visé
This article first appeared in USA TODAY: Your heating bills could leave you ‘bare’ after arctic blast
Reporting by Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY / USA TODAY
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
