Heating a Long Island Home in 2026: What Oil, Natural Gas, and Heat Pumps Cost Right Now

ByPawli Paola Meyer

Home heating oil on Long Island averaged $3.85 per gallon in October 2025 and $5.66 in April 2026, according to NYSERDA’s monthly survey of Nassau and Suffolk counties. A move of that size inside a single heating season is the strongest argument for treating a house’s heating system as a cost to be priced, not a fixture to be assumed.

The options facing a North Shore owner or buyer are fewer than they first appear. A home can keep burning oil, connect to natural gas where a main runs past the property, or switch to an electric heat pump. Each carries a different cost per unit of heat, a different exposure to price swings and a different set of incentives, and the largest federal incentive for heat pumps, the tax credit, ended on December 31, 2025. This guide gathers current prices from public sources, converts them into a like-for-like comparison, and sets out the rebates, rules and contractor questions that decide whether the arithmetic holds up in a particular house.

In this guide

What heating oil has cost on Long Island this season

NYSERDA publishes monthly averages for home heating oil by region. Its Long Island table, which covers Nassau and Suffolk counties for the 2025-26 heating season, shows how far one season can move.

MonthAverage price per gallon
September 2025$3.85
October 2025$3.85
November 2025$4.01
December 2025$3.95
January 2026$3.91
February 2026$4.35
March 2026$5.50
April 2026$5.66
May 2026$5.52
June 2026$4.96
July 2026$5.24
August 2026$5.48

Source: NYSERDA, Monthly Average Home Heating Oil Prices, Long Island Region. Figures are rounded to the cent from NYSERDA’s cents-per-gallon values.

The break came between February and March 2026, when the monthly average went from $4.35 to $5.50. NYSERDA lists the figures without explaining them, and notes that prices are surveyed weekly from October through March, so each monthly number blends several weekly readings. A separate weekly series for New York residential heating oil on YCharts points the same way, showing $5.874 a gallon on March 30, 2026, against $3.936 a year earlier.

For a household, the practical result is budget variance. A tank filled in October 2025 and one filled in April 2026 were bought at prices about 47 percent apart. Prices have eased from the April peak but at $5.48 in August they remained well above where the season began.

Oil also brings an equipment cost that gas and electricity do not: a storage tank, which on older Island properties may be buried and decades old. Discovery, decommissioning and soil questions are covered in The Oil Tank Discovery Protocol and in the sellers’ piece on hunting down buried oil tanks.

Natural gas: lower cost per unit, with a catch

The U.S. Energy Information Administration put the average New York residential natural gas price at $30.86 per thousand cubic feet in July 2026, up from $28.83 in July 2025, a rise of about 7 percent. Two cautions apply to that number. It is a statewide figure, not a Long Island one, and it comes from a summer month, when fixed charges are spread over very little usage and can make the per-unit price look higher than it does in winter.

Delivery rates are also moving. National Grid’s three-year rate plan for New York City and Long Island was approved after public hearings, and CBS New York reported the cumulative average impact at roughly $60 per month by 2026. National Grid has said the money goes toward infrastructure, such as replacing aging gas lines and transmitting renewable energy, and not toward the commodity price of gas. Customers should check the current tariff, because the CBS report predates this season.

The larger issue is availability. Gas is a street-by-street question on the North Shore, and a home without a main in front of it cannot simply order a connection. National Grid’s own conversion FAQ, which is dated 2016, says that new service lines depend on enough neighborhood participation. That document is old enough that current conditions for any given street should be confirmed directly with National Grid before a plan is built around gas.

Turning prices into a like-for-like comparison

Gallons, thousand cubic feet and kilowatt-hours cannot be compared directly, so energy analysts convert everything to British thermal units. The EIA lists one gallon of heating oil at 138,500 Btu, one cubic foot of natural gas at 1,036 Btu and one kilowatt-hour of electricity at 3,412 Btu. Dividing price by Btu content gives the fuel cost per million Btu (MMBtu). Equipment efficiency then determines how much of that energy ends up as heat in the house, which is why the second column of the tables below matters as much as the first.

Fuel-burning systems

SystemInputsCost per MMBtu of heat delivered
Oil boiler, 85% efficient$5.48/gal (Long Island, Aug. 2026)$46.55
Oil boiler, 85% efficient$3.85/gal (Long Island, Oct. 2025)$32.69
Oil boiler, 85% efficient$5.66/gal (Long Island, Apr. 2026)$48.11
Gas boiler or furnace, 90% efficient$30.86/Mcf (New York average, July 2026)$33.10

Heat pumps at three electricity prices and three performance levels

A heat pump moves heat instead of creating it, so its efficiency is expressed as a coefficient of performance (COP): units of heat delivered per unit of electricity used. A COP of 2.5 means 2.5 units of heat for each unit of electricity.

Electricity priceCOP 1.75COP 2.5COP 3.0
20 cents/kWh$33.50$23.45$19.54
25 cents/kWh$41.87$29.31$24.42
30 cents/kWh$50.24$35.17$29.31

For reference, resistance electric heating, where COP is 1.0, costs $73.27 per MMBtu at 25 cents.

The inputs behind those rows come from different places. Oil prices are NYSERDA’s. Gas is the EIA’s New York average. Electricity is shown as a range because a single all-in Long Island rate could not be verified for this guide: PSEG Long Island’s rate booklet lists a power supply charge of 13.92 cents per kWh effective October 1, 2026, but that is only the supply component, and delivery charges and fees sit on top. The EIA’s New York statewide average residential price was 19.66 cents in 2024. The COP of 1.75 is the cold-climate performance floor at 5°F cited in National Grid’s heat pump FAQ, 3.0 echoes the Department of Energy’s statement that a heat pump can deliver up to three times the energy it consumes, and 2.5 is an illustrative middle case, not a measured seasonal average. The 85 and 90 percent efficiencies are also assumptions, and real boilers vary.

With those inputs, the break-even points are straightforward. Against an 85 percent oil boiler at $5.48 a gallon, a heat pump with a COP of 2.5 costs less to run until electricity passes about 39.7 cents per kWh, and one performing at the 1.75 floor stays ahead until roughly 27.8 cents. Against a 90 percent gas system at $30.86 per Mcf, the same unit at COP 2.5 stays ahead until about 28.2 cents, and at COP 3.0 until about 33.9 cents. In plain terms, a cold-climate heat pump undercuts oil across most of the range shown, while against natural gas the result turns on the electric rate and on performance during the coldest weeks.

Three limits apply. The tables show operating cost per unit of heat only, with nothing for installation, electrical upgrades, tank removal or maintenance. They are arithmetic on public inputs, not a bill forecast or a prediction of future prices. And the Department of Energy’s own savings estimates, such as annual savings of about 6,200 kWh, or $948, against oil systems for cold-climate units in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, rest on that agency’s study conditions and energy prices, not on today’s Long Island rates. PSEG Long Island also hosts an HVAC cost comparison calculator, referenced by the Long Island Regional Clean Energy Hub, that models a specific home over five, ten and fifteen years.

This is for informational purposes only. Consult a licensed attorney or financial advisor for your specific situation.

Do heat pumps work on the North Shore in January?

Older heat pumps struggled in sustained freezing weather, which is where the reputation comes from. The Department of Energy now describes current technology as “a legitimate space heating alternative in colder regions”, and New York’s Clean Heat program advises that any air source heat pump bought for a New York home should be rated for cold climates.

Utility and state guidance diverge on backup heat. PSEG Long Island’s FAQ for oil- and gas-heated homes states, “we recommend you keep your existing heating equipment, but only as a backup”, with the older system taking over only in extreme cold, ideally below 15°F. Its rebate program goes further and requires integrated dual-fuel controls that link the two systems. New York’s Clean Heat site, by contrast, says modern units can handle cold weather without a backup system. Both positions can be defended, and which fits a given house depends on its size, insulation and the unit chosen, so the point is worth settling in writing with the installer before work begins.

Product type matters too. National Grid’s heat pump FAQ describes ductless mini-splits as an option that can heat or cool without blocking a window, and notes that ducted systems exist for homes with ductwork. PSEG’s rebate page references two qualified product lists: cold-climate air source models certified through NEEP, and New York State air-to-water models. A house heated by a boiler and baseboard radiators sits in a different equipment category than one with ducts, which is another reason to ask early which product list the contractor intends to use.

Heat pumps cool as well as heat. PSEG Long Island’s summer heat advisory, as published by TBR News Media, recommends installing a high-efficiency air source heat pump to “lower energy usage in cold and hot months”. For a house that already pays for a separate air-conditioning system, that dual role changes the replacement math.

Video: “For the Greener Good: ASHP with PSEG Long Island” (YouTube).

A heat pump also raises winter electricity use, which interacts with the other half of a household’s energy plan. Owners weighing rooftop solar should read how PSEG rate increases change the Long Island solar math alongside this guide.

Rebates and tax credits in 2026

What ended. Two federal credits tied to heating upgrades expired at the end of 2025. Under Public Law 119-21, the One Big Beautiful Bill, the Section 25C energy efficient home improvement credit is not allowed for property placed in service after December 31, 2025, and the Section 25D residential clean energy credit, which covered geothermal heat pumps, is not allowed for expenditures after that date, according to the IRS FAQ on the law. Before expiring, the 25C heat pump credit covered up to 30 percent of project cost, capped at $2,000 per year. Some local resource pages still describe federal credits as available, so the date on any page that mentions them is worth checking.

What remains. PSEG Long Island’s Home Comfort program lists these rebates for whole-house, single-family heat pump projects:

Household categoryRebate
Market rate$4,000
Disadvantaged community (market rate)$5,000
Moderate income (below 80% of area median income)$5,000
Low income (below 60% of area median income)$7,500
Contractor incentive$250 per project

Program rules attached to those amounts include:

  • Equipment must be purchased from and installed by participating Home Comfort Partners.
  • A Manual J heating load calculation is required.
  • Only NEEP cold-climate air source heat pumps or New York State air-to-water models qualify.
  • Dual-fuel thermostat or integrated controls are mandatory.
  • Pre-approval is required before work begins, and the final payment may come in lower than the pre-approved amount if the installed equipment differs.

Income guidelines are updated annually, and third-party websites quote different per-ton rebate figures from the structure above, so the program’s own page is the reference to confirm before signing a contract. PSEG’s FAQ also mentions a Residential Electric Heating rate, Rate 580, that discounts the delivery charge by 40 percent on usage above 400 kWh a month, which is worth asking about for any home that moves its heating load onto the electric bill.

State help runs through NYSERDA’s EmPower+ program, open to households below 80 percent of state or area median income or enrolled in a utility payment assistance program. The dollar amounts depend on county and household size and are set through an interactive tool on NYSERDA’s site, so no figure is given here.

Financing the upfront cost is a separate question. Owners holding a low mortgage rate who are weighing a home equity line against a cash-out refinance can start with this comparison for Long Island renovations.

New construction and the all-electric law

New York’s All-Electric Buildings Act bars new gas hookups in newly constructed buildings. It was due to start on January 1, 2026 for buildings under seven stories and applies to all new buildings after January 1, 2029, but implementation was delayed pending a federal appeal. On June 30, 2026, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the law is not preempted under the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act. Coverage of the ruling does not state a new start date, so that detail should be checked before relying on it. The law applies to new construction only and does not reach existing homes.

Buyers of new builds on the North Shore should read the contract language on heating systems with care, a point developed in The Builder Fine Print.

What the heating system means when buying or selling

For buyers, the heating system is a line item with a replacement date. A boiler near the end of its life, an aging oil tank or a missing gas connection are all costs that can be priced into an offer, and the inspection stage is where they surface. The Home Inspection Red Flags That Matter Most on Long Island’s Older Housing Stock covers what inspectors tend to find in older houses, and the guide to historic homes on Long Island addresses the heating and insulation questions particular to pre-war construction.

A practical step for buyers is to request the last two winters of oil delivery records or utility statements. Actual consumption shows more than any estimate, and it can be run through the comparison above with the seller’s real numbers.

For sellers, the same logic runs the other way. Organized records of deliveries, service visits and any tank decommissioning paperwork answer buyer questions before they become negotiating points. No Long Island sale-price data tying heating type to sale price turned up during research for this guide, so any claim that a heat pump raises or lowers resale value should be treated as unverified.

Questions to ask a contractor before signing

  • Was a Manual J load calculation performed, and can a copy be provided?
  • Is the proposed model on the NEEP cold-climate list or the New York State air-to-water list, and is the contractor a participating Home Comfort Partner?
  • Who files the pre-approval, and has it been granted before any equipment is ordered?
  • What backup arrangement and controls are included, and at what outdoor temperature does the existing system take over?
  • Does the quote cover electrical panel work, ductwork changes and any new circuits, itemized in writing?
  • What happens to the existing oil tank and burner, who handles permits and removal, and what does that cost?
  • Using the contractor’s own assumptions, how much is the winter electric bill expected to rise, and how much is the oil or gas bill expected to fall?

Frequently asked questions

Is oil or natural gas cheaper to heat with on Long Island?

Using the inputs above, gas costs less per unit of delivered heat, at about $33 per MMBtu against roughly $47 for oil at August 2026 prices. The gas figure is a statewide summer average, though, and the real constraint is whether a gas main serves the street.

Do heat pumps work below freezing?

Cold-climate models are designed to. National Grid’s FAQ cites a performance floor of 1.75 at 5°F for NEEP-certified units, and efficiency falls as temperatures drop. PSEG recommends a backup system for extreme cold, while New York’s Clean Heat program says units can run without one.

Is there still a federal tax credit for heat pumps?

No. Both the 25C and 25D credits ended for property placed in service, or expenditures made, after December 31, 2025, according to the IRS. State and utility incentives continue.

Can a heat pump replace a boiler with baseboard radiators?

PSEG’s rebate page lists a separate qualified product list for air-to-water heat pumps alongside cold-climate air source models, so boiler-and-radiator homes fall into a different equipment category than ducted homes. A contractor should confirm which type suits the house.

Does changing the heating system affect resale value?

No verified Long Island data on that was found. The firmer point is that a newer system, with records, reduces the unknowns a buyer has to price.

Data in this guide reflects public sources reviewed on October 2, 2026. Fuel prices, rates, incentives and legal timelines change, and each should be confirmed with the source before a decision is made. This is for informational purposes only. Consult a licensed attorney or financial advisor for your specific situation.

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