The number of American households using wood as their primary heating fuel is expected to drop by 4% this year, according to the US Energy Information Administration's annual Winter Fuels Outlook published on 6 October.
The EIA forecasts that approximately 1.62 million households will heat primarily with wood in 2026, down from around 1.69 million last year.
The western United States accounts for the largest share at 549,000 households, followed by the Midwest at 387,000, the Northeast at 345,000 and the South at 341,000. All four regions are expected to see declines, ranging from 3% in the West to 5% in the Northeast.
Wood heating continues to represent a small fraction of the US residential market. Natural gas remains the dominant fuel, used by more than 60.96 million households, a figure the EIA expects to hold steady year on year.
Electricity is the second most common primary heating source at 57.88 million households, up 1%. Propane is forecast to remain essentially unchanged at 6.36 million households, while heating oil is expected to see the steepest decline at 5%, falling to 4.13 million households.
On the cost side, the outlook is mixed. Households heating primarily with oil face the sharpest increase in expenditure at 21%, with electricity costs rising 4%. Natural gas expenditure is expected to fall 9%, and propane costs are forecast to drop 3%. The EIA did not publish a separate expenditure forecast for wood heating.
