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I assume these are places with no natural gas infrastructure? I finally convinced my mom to convert from oil to gas, even though she has a somewhat irrational fear of gas, based just on the cost. She'll break even on the cost of the new furnace within a couple years. The cost difference between the fuels is significant.

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Yep. In New England [1] roughly 2,000,000 households heat via "heating oil" or kerosene (which is more expensive). There are slightly more folks that heat with natural gas, but this is a rural vs suburban divide and New England is quite rural overall.

Heat pumps are in vogue now but usually they are supplemented with fireplaces, wood stoves or pellet stoves.

[1] https://www.mass.gov/service-details/how-massachusetts-house...

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