FrugalWatt › Analysis
Original analysis
Home energy costs, explained with data
Each piece starts with a question people are already asking, answers it from public data, and shows the source release, retrieval date and method. Reports update in place; everything else is dated.
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Monthly reports
Updates in place after each data release.
Electricity prices by state: where they rose most in the past year, and the past five
Residential electricity prices in all 50 states and DC through June 2026: price, rank, changes and average bill from EIA data.
Latest edition September 16, 2026 · Data through June 2026
Explainers
A homeowner question, answered with data.
Massachusetts homes use less electricity than almost anyone, and still pay more
Massachusetts homes use 31% less electricity than the US average and pay 18% more. Ten years of EIA data show how much of the bill increase is price and how much is usage.
September 16, 2026 · Data through June 2026
Trends
How households are actually behaving.
US home electricity prices are rising four times faster than they did last decade
US home electricity prices rose 1.3% a year through the 2010s and 5.6% a year since 2020. Sixteen years of federal data show where the shift happened and what it means for a household budget.
September 16, 2026 · Data through June 2026Northern New England homes use more electricity than a decade ago. California and the Northwest use less.
Over ten years, electricity use per household rose in Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts and fell in California, Oregon and DC. The US average barely moved. State-by-state table from EIA data.
September 16, 2026 · Data through June 2026Heat pumps outshipped central air conditioners for five straight months
AHRI shipment data show heat pumps exceeding central AC every month from September 2025 through January 2026, and beating gas furnaces every month of 2026 so far. What that does and does not say about the end of the federal credit.
September 16, 2026 · Data through July 2026 shipments