State showdown: CA vs MA

Who pockets more per month?

We know that winter heating bills can get pretty extreme here in Massachusetts, but how do they compare to California AC bills?

The graphs summarize the distribution of bills (in dollars per bedroom) for each month, in each state. The wide bands enclose the middle 50% of bills in the Wegowise database; that is, from the 25th percentile to the 75th. The dark line for each state represents the median cost.

We can see that the winter bill blues peak for Massachusetts in January, when the best 25% of buildings pay less than $25 per bedroom, while the worst 25% pay over $65 per bedroom for the month, dwarfing the costs in California.

Air conditioning prices don't peak as severely as heating, but the long tail of California electric bills can hurt just as much as an expensive winter month in Massachusetts.

This data was featured in a December 2013 Greentech Media article.

  • All data are drawn from the WegoWise database, from the twelve months prior to December, 2013.
  • Gas bills are from gas-heated buildings; electric bills from buildings with air conditioning; water bills from any configuration.
  • The histograms are binned per building.