What Does a Power Bill Cost in Wilmington vs the Northeast?

This is the single most counterintuitive line in the moving budget, and we would rather you hear it from us now than discover it next August. Everyone arriving from the Northeast expects cheap power in the South. The price of the electricity is cheap. The quantity is not.

If you are still working out the whole picture, our moving to Wilmington section and the New Hanover County market update cover the costs that move the budget more than this one does. Wilmington runs air conditioning for most of the year, and a large share of houses here heat with an electric heat pump rather than gas or oil. So the same family that burned 570 kilowatt hours a month in Massachusetts burns well over a thousand here.

The two numbers that cancel each other out

The U.S. Energy Information Administration publishes average monthly consumption, average price and average monthly bill by state from Form EIA-861. The 2024 figures, released October 7, 2025, are the most recent full-year set, and they tell the story cleanly.

A New York household moving to Wilmington cuts the price it pays per unit by about 42 percent and raises the number of units it uses by about 78 percent. Those two moves very nearly cancel. A Connecticut household gets a real win, because Connecticut starts from the highest bill in the Northeast. A New Jersey household should expect the bill to go up slightly.

The gap between the 2024 bill figures and the August 2026 prices is worth noticing. North Carolina’s residential price moved from 14.13 to 14.95 cents. New York’s moved from 24.43 to 28.65. The spread is widening in our favor, but it widens the price, not the usage.

Why Wilmington houses use so much electricity

Three reasons, and they are all about the climate and the way houses here were built.

Cooling season is long. Air conditioning runs from April into October in most years, and July and August are the expensive months rather than January. A heat pump in a reasonably new house in Ogden or Leland is cheap to run in winter and costly in high summer, which is the opposite of the pattern most Northeast buyers are used to budgeting around.

Heat is usually electric. Many homes here have no gas service at all, so the heat pump handles both seasons and everything lands on one bill. In a Pennsylvania or New Jersey house, winter heat often sits on a separate gas or oil bill that does not show up in the electricity comparison above.

That last point is the honest counterweight to the headline. If you are comparing total household energy rather than just the electric line, the Wilmington number usually looks better than it does here, because there is only one bill. We are not going to put a figure on the combined comparison, because the gas and oil side depends on your old house in a way no state average captures.

What this means for the house you are about to buy

Ask the seller for twelve months of actual power bills. Not a summary, not an average, the twelve statements. That single request tells you more than any state table, because the spread between a 1998 house with original windows and a 2021 build with a modern heat pump is far wider than the spread between two states.

Then check two things on the house itself. What the heating and cooling system is and how old it is, and whether the house has been air sealed and insulated to a modern standard. A fifteen-year-old heat pump in a leaky house in July is where the scary bills come from, and it is a repair negotiation item, not a reason to walk.

Which utility serves the address matters as well. Duke Energy Progress covers most of the Wilmington area and has a rate case pending before the North Carolina Utilities Commission that would raise residential rates further, which we cover in our Wilmington cost of living breakdown. Treat today’s rate as a floor rather than a ceiling.

Related questions people also ask

Are summer power bills in Wilmington much higher than winter ones?

Yes, for most households, because cooling season is long and the hottest months drive the peak. July and August are typically the two most expensive months of the year, while a heat pump in a reasonably insulated house is relatively cheap to run in January. That seasonal shape is the reverse of what buyers coming from the Northeast are used to, so an average monthly figure can hide a summer bill that is much larger.

Do homes in Wilmington have natural gas?

Some do and many do not, and it varies street by street rather than town by town. Newer subdivisions are often all electric with a heat pump handling heating and cooling, while older neighborhoods closer to town are more likely to have a gas line available. Ask specifically whether the house has gas service and what it is used for, because it changes how you compare the utility costs against the home you are leaving.

How do I get an estimate of a power bill before I buy?

Ask the seller for the last twelve monthly statements and look at the kilowatt hours used, not just the dollars, since rates change but usage patterns persist. Most utilities will also give a prospective customer usage history for a specific address on request. Between those two sources you can build a realistic number before your due diligence period ends.

Matthew Kane, Tidal Realty Partners, Wilmington, NC. NC Broker #297432, Real Broker LLC (NC Firm #C34379). (910) 372-6720, info@tidalrealtypartners.com.

Sources: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Sales, Revenue, and Average Price, Table 5.A, 2024 Average Monthly Bill – Residential, from Form EIA-861, released October 7, 2025. U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A, August 2026 residential average retail price, released October 23, 2026, preliminary. Tidal Realty Partners Wilmington cost of living breakdown, including the Duke Energy Progress rate case before the North Carolina Utilities Commission, 2026.