Williamstown · Berkshire County
What Does It Cost to Heat a Home in Williamstown?
Utility gas is the most common heating fuel here, used by 46.8% of homes.
Who Heats with What
Share of occupied homes by main heating fuel, from the Census Bureau's rolling five-year survey. Small-town estimates that are too unreliable to publish are shown as exactly that.
This Week's Prices, as a Season
Gas Main Present
A gas main serves at least part of this town, so gas heat is an option on some streets. Gas prices are not yet tracked here, the utility's own rate schedule has the number. The delivered fuels below are the tracked alternatives.
Heating oil: about $4,932 a season
800 gallons, a planning figure for a typical New England single-family home, in line with federal winter-fuels estimates, at $6.17/gallon (New England average, week of 2026-10-26). Your house, insulation and thermostat set the real number.
Propane: about $3,917 a season
1,000 gallons, a planning figure for a typical New England single-family home, in line with federal winter-fuels estimates, at $3.92/gallon (New England average, week of 2026-10-26). Your house, insulation and thermostat set the real number.
Would a Heat Pump Beat It?
In this illustration, a heat pump would save about $1,567 a season
The same heat as 800 gallons of heating oil, a typical season, takes about 11,041 kilowatt-hours through a cold-climate heat pump at a seasonal average efficiency of 2.5 (two and a half units of heat per unit of electricity). That is about $3,365 at 30.48¢/kWh (Massachusetts residential average, 2026-08), against $4,932 of heating oil at $6.17/gallon (New England average, week of 2026-10-26). The tipping point is 44.7¢: under these efficiency assumptions, a heat pump wins whenever your electricity costs less than that per kilowatt-hour. Running cost only, equipment, installation, backup heat and your house's real efficiency are not in this arithmetic.
Gas heat isn't in this comparison, gas prices aren't tracked here yet, and homes on the main usually heat cheaper than the delivered fuels compared above.
Electricity Here
Electric service is from National Grid (Massachusetts Electric). The Massachusetts residential average is 30.48¢ per kilowatt-hour.
What Neighbours Burn
The nearest towns, and what most homes there heat with.
From the Desk
RE413 News: how much snow each town actually gets. Built from the same public record as the figures on this page.
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year. The town's heating-fuel mix. Figures through 2020–2024 survey window.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration, weekly heating fuels survey (New England). Figures through 2026-10-26.
- Arithmetic from federal fuel-energy tables, dated New England fuel prices and the Massachusetts electricity average. Figures through 2026-08.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration, state electricity averages; utility registry via MassGIS. Checked 2026-11-02.
"Figures through" is the period the publisher's data describes; "checked" is only when we last asked. The full sourcing: sources and method.