District of Columbia (DC) electricity and natural gas rates
Electricity
25.21¢
per kWh
Natural gas
$3.05
per therm
Gas and electricity in the same unit
A therm is 29.3 kilowatt hours of energy, so District of Columbia's gas works out at 10.41¢ per kWh against 25.21¢ for electricity.
That compares the energy you buy, not the heat you get. A furnace throws away a fifth of every therm up the flue, while a heat pump delivers two to three times the heat in a kilowatt hour — so the cheaper unit here is not automatically the cheaper way to heat a house.
Residential sector, US Energy Information Administration, 2026-07. Updated monthly.
How District of Columbia compares
At 25.21¢ per kWh, District of Columbia is above the national average of 19.26¢, making it the 43rd cheapest of the 51 states we track.
What a typical District of Columbia household uses
Electricity a month
630 kWh
Bill a month
$153
Households in District of Columbia use 27% less electricity than the national average and end up with a bill close to it. That is a price problem rather than a consumption one — at 25.21¢ a kilowatt hour, even a modest amount of electricity adds up. The climate is fairly balanced — 4,100 heating degree days against 1,500 cooling ones — so neither season dominates the bill.
More on this: the average electric bill in District of Columbia, including how far it swings between seasons.
Averaged over twelve months across 326,896 residential accounts in District of Columbia. Source: EIA.
What this means for heating
District of Columbia sees around 80 freezing nights a year. Whether a heat pump beats a furnace here depends on the gap between those two prices above — not on the equipment.
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More for District of Columbia
Everything in District of Columbia
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Average electric bill in District of Columbia
What households pay
Cost to run AC in District of Columbia
Per hour and per year
Cost to heat a home in District of Columbia
Gas vs heat pump
Heat pump cost in District of Columbia
To install, and vs a furnace
Furnace replacement cost in District of Columbia
What a new one costs
Solar payback in District of Columbia
Whether panels pay off