Maine Heats Different
If you're moving to Maine from a natural gas state, the first thing you need to understand is that natural gas is rare here. Outside of Portland, Lewiston-Auburn, Bangor, and a handful of other cities, gas mains don't reach. That means most Maine homes are heated with one of five things: oil, propane, wood pellets, cordwood, or heat pumps. Many homes use a combination. Here's the plain-English breakdown so you can plan your first winter without getting blindsided.
Heating Oil: The Maine Default
Roughly 60% of Maine homes still use heating oil as their primary heat source — the highest percentage of any state. The system: a tank in your basement (or buried outside), a furnace or boiler that burns oil to heat water or air, and a delivery company that fills the tank when it's low.
Pros: Reliable, well-understood, every plumber and HVAC tech in Maine knows the systems, lots of delivery companies competing, can heat large homes effectively in deep cold.
Cons: Price volatility (oil tracks crude markets), tank can leak (expensive to remediate), the burner needs annual service, you can run out and freeze your pipes if you don't watch the gauge.
Real cost (2026): A typical Maine home uses 600-900 gallons of heating oil per winter. At $3.50-$4.00 a gallon, that's roughly $2,100-$3,600 per heating season for an average home. Larger or older homes can easily exceed $4,000.
Tip for newcomers: Sign up for automatic delivery (the company tracks degree days and fills you before you run out), lock in a price contract or budget plan if rates spike, and never let your tank drop below 25%.
Propane: Cleaner Cousin of Oil
Propane is the second most common heating fuel in Maine, used both as a primary heat source and for water heaters, ranges, and dryers. The system is similar to oil — tank outside (above or below ground), delivered by truck, burned in a furnace or boiler.
Pros: Burns cleaner than oil, no smell, works for cooking and hot water too, modern condensing propane systems are very efficient.
Cons: More expensive per BTU than oil in most years, and many propane companies own the tank and lock you into buying from them — switching providers can be a hassle.
Real cost (2026): Propane prices in Maine run roughly $3.00-$4.00 per gallon. A propane-only heated home uses 800-1,200 gallons per season — call it $2,500-$4,500 typical.
Tip: Always ask whether you own the tank or rent it. Owning gives you the freedom to shop providers; renting locks you in.
Wood Pellets: Set It and Forget It
Pellet stoves and pellet boilers have grown fast in Maine over the past decade. Pellets are compressed sawdust, burned in a stove with an automatic auger feed. You fill the hopper (usually weekly) and it runs on a thermostat like a regular furnace.
Pros: Renewable, often cheaper than oil per BTU, made in Maine (good local supply), wood smells nice, works in power outages with a battery backup.
Cons: Pellets are heavy and bulky to store, you have to load the hopper, pellet boilers are expensive upfront, requires more maintenance than oil/propane, pellets sell out during peak winter (buy in summer).
Real cost (2026): Pellets run about $300-$380 per ton. A typical Maine home uses 4-6 tons per winter — call it $1,500-$2,300 per season for the fuel.
Tip: Buy your full season's pellets in August or September. Prices spike and supply tightens by December.
Cordwood: The Most Maine Option
Plenty of Maine homes still heat primarily with cordwood — a wood stove or wood furnace burning split firewood. Some people love it, some people resent the work. It's not for everyone, but it's the cheapest fuel if you have the space, the time, and the back.
Pros: Cheapest fuel by far if you split your own; even buying it processed, it's competitive; works in any power outage; produces real heat, not the gentle warmth of a heat pump.
Cons: Constant work — loading, splitting, stacking, hauling, cleaning ash, sweeping the chimney annually. Insurance costs more. You need a place to store 4-6 cords. The fire goes out at night.
Real cost (2026): Green cordwood runs $200-$280 per cord delivered. Seasoned, split, and delivered ranges $300-$400 per cord. A typical home burning wood as primary heat needs 4-6 cords per winter — call it $1,200-$2,400 per season.
Heat Pumps: Maine's Big Push
The state has been aggressively promoting heat pumps (specifically air-source ductless minisplits) for the past few years through Efficiency Maine rebates. They're now installed in over 100,000 Maine homes. A heat pump is basically an air conditioner that runs in reverse — it pulls heat from outside air and pumps it inside. Modern cold-climate models work down to -15°F or below.
Pros: Very efficient (one unit of electricity produces 2-3 units of heat in cold weather), provides air conditioning in summer too, no tank to fill or order, eligible for state rebates, good for zoning specific rooms.
Cons: Loses efficiency in extreme cold and may need backup, doesn't always heat a whole house evenly without multiple heads, electric bill goes up substantially, installation cost runs $4,000-$5,000 per zone, and if the power's out the heat's out.
Real cost (2026): Hard to pin exact numbers because it depends on your electricity supplier and the size of your home, but a heat pump-only home in Maine typically runs $1,800-$3,500 in added winter electric costs. With Efficiency Maine rebates, install cost has come down significantly — check efficiencymaine.com for current rebate amounts.
Tip: Most Maine homes with heat pumps still keep their oil or propane backup for the coldest nights and for power outages. "Heat pump primary, oil backup" is the most common setup.
What Should You Actually Do?
If you bought a house with an existing system, just maintain it for the first winter. Don't rip out a working oil burner in October to install a heat pump — wait until spring. Get to know your home's quirks, see what your bills actually look like, and then make changes from a place of information.
If your house has oil only and no backup, install a wood stove or pellet stove for outage insurance — that's the single highest-leverage upgrade you can make for safety.
If your house has heat pumps only and no backup, you need a generator big enough to run them, or a backup oil/propane/wood system.
The Maine homes that handle winter best almost always have two heat sources. Think in those terms.
Bottom Line
Heat in Maine is more expensive, more variable, and more important than in most states. Budget $2,000-$4,000 per heating season as a realistic baseline. Have a backup. Schedule deliveries early. Don't run out in February.