North Carolina (NC) electricity and natural gas rates
Electricity
15.16¢
per kWh
Natural gas
$3.29
per therm
Gas and electricity in the same unit
A therm is 29.3 kilowatt hours of energy, so North Carolina's gas works out at 11.22¢ per kWh against 15.16¢ 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 North Carolina compares
At 15.16¢ per kWh, North Carolina is below the national average of 19.26¢, making it the 16th cheapest of the 51 states we track.
What a typical North Carolina household uses
Electricity a month
1,029 kWh
Bill a month
$152
Households in North Carolina use 20% more electricity than the national average and end up with a bill close to it. Cheap power absorbs most of that: the meter turns faster here, but at 15.16¢ each unit costs less than it does nationally. The climate is fairly balanced — 3,300 heating degree days against 1,600 cooling ones — so neither season dominates the bill.
More on this: the average electric bill in North Carolina, including how far it swings between seasons.
Averaged over twelve months across 5,254,392 residential accounts in North Carolina. Source: EIA.
What this means for heating
North Carolina sees around 70 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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