What It Will Cost To Heat Your Home

Buffalo, N.Y., gets cold during the winter. Really cold. Just ask any Bills fan who has attended a home football game. The average low temperature during the months of January and February is 16 degrees Fahrenheit. Boston, at the same latitude, posts average lows of 23 degrees during that time.

Yet the typical Buffalo family will spend $333 less to heat a home this year than families in Boston do. In fact, Buffalo residents will likely spend less this winter than those in Washington, D.C., who right now are complaining about the oppressive heat in the Potomac River Valley.

Why? The need for heat depends on temperature, of course. But local prices, inventories, refining capacity and choice of heat also play a role. Eight-eight percent of Buffalonians use natural gas; this is the most efficient and least volatile energy source available. Only 2% of residents use more expensive heating oil, compared with 36% of Bostonians.