housing, "Home Heating Fuel Information" (6/7/95) EMBARGOED UNTIL: JUNE 7, 1995 (WEDNESDAY) Public Information Office CB95-107 301-457-2794 301-457-4067 (TDD) William Chapin 301-763-8553 GAS AND ELECTRICITY HEAT MOST NEW HOMES EMBARGOED UNTIL: JUNE 7, 1995 (WEDNESDAY) - In 1950, coal or coke was the most commonly used heating fuel in the United States; 40 years later, coal had almost vanished as a home heating fuel, to be replaced by gas, electricity, and fuel oil/kerosene, a statistical brief released today by the Commerce Department's Census Bureau says. The brief, titled "Housing in Metropolitan Areas--Home Heating Fuel" (SB/95-7), looks at the range of fuels used as the main heating source of housing units in 1990. The data on fuels were collected as part of the 1990 Census of Population and Housing. The study says the majority of the nation's homes in metropolitan areas (MAs) were heated by either utility or bottled gas (59 percent). Other sources were electricity (26 percent) and fuel oil and kerosene (12 percent), with 3 percent listed as other or no fuel used. Homes built between 1985 and March 1990 were nearly six times as likely as those built prior to 1940 to be heated by electricity. Conversely, older units were about five times as likely as new units to use fuel oil or kerosene. Noting regional differences in the choice of home heating fuels, the study says four of the five MAs where at least 90 percent of homes were heated by gas were located either in the West: Salt Lake City-Ogden and Provo-Orem, Utah; or in the Midwest: Detroit, Mich., and Davenport-Rock Island-Moline, Iowa-Ill. The fifth was Buffalo, N.Y. Florida is the nation's electricity capital, containing 10 of the top 11 MAs in the nation with homes most likely to be heated by electricity. Naples, Fla., where electricity heated 93 percent of homes, leads the nation. The Northeast is the location of every one of the 30 metro areas where liquid fuels (including fuel oil and kerosene) are most commonly used. The two national leaders, Bangor and Lewiston-Auburn, Maine, are the only two MAs in the country where more than 70 percent of homes are heated with liquid fuels. Although nationally, coal or coke, and wood are uncommon today as home heating sources, they are popular in specific metro areas. For example, the main source of heat for 16 percent of the residences of Johnstown, Pa., was coal or coke. Wood was used to heat 28 percent of the homes in Redding, Calif., and 22 percent in Medford, Ore. Solar energy was most widely used in Santa Fe, N.M. (2 percent), and in Honolulu, Hawaii (just over 1 percent). Also, residents of some metro areas did not have to use any heating fuel. Almost one-third of these were in Honolulu, where 53 percent of homes had no heat. -X- Editor's note: EMBARGOED UNTIL: JUNE 7, 1995 (WEDNESDAY) - media representatives may request a copy of the report from the bureau's Public Information Office by telephone: 301-457-2794; fax: 301-457-3670; or e-mail: pio@census.gov. Non-media orders should be directed to the bureau's Customer Services Branch on 301-763-INFO(4636) or fax 301-457-3842. Fax-on-demand document number