South Carolina (SC) electricity and natural gas rates
Electricity
15.47¢
per kWh
Natural gas
$2.88
per therm
Gas and electricity in the same unit
A therm is 29.3 kilowatt hours of energy, so South Carolina's gas works out at 9.84¢ per kWh against 15.47¢ 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 South Carolina compares
At 15.47¢ per kWh, South Carolina is below the national average of 19.26¢, making it the 20th cheapest of the 51 states we track.
What a typical South Carolina household uses
Electricity a month
1,057 kWh
Bill a month
$165
Households in South Carolina use 23% more electricity than the national average and pay 10% more than average. Cheap power absorbs most of that: the meter turns faster here, but at 15.47¢ each unit costs less than it does nationally. Cooling explains most of it: South Carolina runs about 2,100 cooling degree days a year against 2,400 heating ones, so summer, not winter, sets the bill.
More on this: the average electric bill in South Carolina, including how far it swings between seasons.
Averaged over twelve months across 2,670,390 residential accounts in South Carolina. Source: EIA.
What this means for heating
South Carolina sees around 45 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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