What electric space heating costs to run in Colorado

What electric space heating costs here

Across 5 plans priced in Colorado, electric space heating adds $126.62 to $279.48 a year — $10.55 to $23.29 a month. The median plan puts electric space heating at $262.59 a year.

Cheapest for electric space heating: Residential Demand - Time Differentiated Rates (Schedule RD-TDR), Public Service Co of Colorado. Dearest: Residential General Service Opt-Out (Schedule R-OO), Public Service Co of Colorado.

Those 1,710 kWh are billed at 7.4¢–16.3¢, against a 16.6¢ whole-bill average on the median plan, so on these plans the two rates are close.

What Colorado homes use

EIA's 2020 residential survey found 1,710 kWh a year across 136 sampled homes that run one, 31% under the national 2,484 kWh. The middle half spans 228 kWh to 2,205 kWh, so electric space heating varies by 1,977 kWh between one household and another.

All electricity used for space heating, including the furnace or heat-pump compressor and the air handler that moves the heat around the house. That average covers homes heated with electricity — 40% of homes here, against 52% nationally.

That makes electric space heating about 21% of the electricity a Colorado home uses. The remaining 6,434 kWh is what electric space heating is billed on top of, and on a tiered or time-of-use plan that is what sets the rate it meets.

Light and heavy use of electric space heating

A household in the lighter quarter runs electric space heating for 228 kWh a year and pays $16.83 on the cheapest plan. One in the heavier quarter runs it for 2,205 kWh and pays $163.26 — $146.43 more for electric space heating on the same tariff.

Limits

A 2020 survey average for Colorado, not a measurement of any one home, priced against the 5 Colorado tariffs WattClear has ingested — not every plan sold there.