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The point is made in the passage that the efficiency of home heating in the US —.
Electric heating, which appeared in less than 1 per
cent of homes in the United States in 1950, now
dominates most areas with mild winters and cheap
electricity, including the South and the Northwest. Its
popularity, at least in the South, was spurred by the
low cost of adding electric heating to new houses
built with air-conditioning. In the Northeast and
Midwest, electricity has not been a popular fuel
because of its high cost for cold-weather heating
and because it delivers heat at 90 to 95°F,
compared with 120 to 140°F for gas and oil, which
many in cold climates find preferable. In some
areas, such as California, electric heating has not
progressed because of building code restrictions.
Bottled gas, which is somewhat more expensive
than utility gas, is the fuel of choice in rural areas not
served by utility pipelines. Wood, the dominant fuel
throughout the US economy until the 1880s, is the
leading heating fuel in just a few rural counties.
Home heating, which accounts for less than 7 per
cent of all energy consumed in the US, has had a
commendable efficiency record: from 1978 to 1997,
the amount of fuel consumed for this purpose
declined 44 per cent despite a 33 per cent increase
in the number of housing units and an increase in
house size. This improvement came about thanks to
better insulation and more efficient equipment
following the energy crisis of the 1970s.