The short answer
In a Northern Virginia winter, a high electric bill is usually heat. If you have a heat pump, look first at its backup heat: electric strips that make one unit of heat for every unit of electricity, where the heat pump itself can deliver up to three. A 10 kW strip kit draws about what six or seven space heaters do. And the power costs more than it did: the average Virginia home paid 17.64 cents a kilowatt hour in August 2026, up from 15.85 cents a year earlier.
The part most people don’t know
A heat pump doesn’t make heat, it moves it from outside to inside. The Department of Energy’s Energy Saver guide says a heat pump uses about half the electricity of electric resistance heat. The backup strips in your air handler are that resistance heat, the same idea as a toaster. When they run, you pay full price for every bit of warmth.
They’re supposed to run a little. In a Department of Energy field study of a heat pump in a cold climate, the strips were typically about 1 to 3 percent of the system’s total use. An older single-stage heat pump starts needing help around 30°F, which engineers call the balance point. So a few hours of strip heat on the coldest mornings is normal. Strips running all day on a 40 degree day are not.
The $67 Heating Check
We check your furnace, heat pump or boiler before winter. Through December 31. See the offer
Signs the backup heat is running too much
A Consortium for Energy Efficiency guide for new heat pump owners calls running on backup heat costly and inefficient, and lists the signs:
- The thermostat shows AUX or EM HEAT most of the day, not just on the coldest mornings.
- Your kilowatt hours jump from one bill to the next with no cold snap to explain it.
- The house never quite reaches the temperature you set.
Any of those is worth a look. It can be a thermostat set up wrong, low refrigerant, a dirty outdoor coil, or an outdoor unit that quit while the strips quietly carry the house. Our guide to AUX heat vs emergency heat explains each label, heat pump running constantly covers when long runs are normal, and our error codes and warning lights guide covers the codes and blinking lights.
The thermostat habit that backfires
With a furnace, turning the heat down at night saves money. With a heat pump it can do the opposite. When you bump it back up in the morning, many thermostats call the strips to close the gap fast. DOE’s guide says don’t set back a heat pump’s thermostat by hand if that brings on the backup heat. The CEE guide says keep it steady, skip jumps of 3°F or more, and save setbacks for when you’re gone longer than a day. More in the best thermostat setting for winter.
EM HEAT shuts the heat pump off and runs the house on strips alone. It’s there for when the outdoor unit is broken or iced solid. Leave it on by accident and you heat the whole house the expensive way. If yours is iced over, start with what to do when a heat pump freezes up.
The other electric heaters in the house
If your water heater is electric, it’s heating every gallon with resistance elements too. A heat pump water heater moves heat instead and runs two to three times more efficiently, per DOE. Here’s how heat pump water heaters and the Dominion rebate work.
A 1,500 watt space heater on high uses 1.5 kilowatt hours for every hour it runs. One in a cold bedroom all night adds up, and if a room needs one every night, the real problem is usually airflow to that room. See space heater vs furnace cost and why one room runs cold.
Plenty of homes are in the same boat: 42 percent of US households named electricity their main heating fuel in 2024, per the Energy Information Administration. If the rate is part of it, read what the Dominion rate increase means and what a doubled heating bill usually means.
What we check
Our heating check is $67 per system, through December 31: furnace, heat pump or boiler. On a heat pump we check how it heats, look at the outdoor coil and watch when the backup strips come on and why. If AUX stays on at your house, tell us when you book.
Book it
Book the heating check, call (703) 997-9757, or book online from goswiftpro.com/cookiesoffer and a box of warm cookies comes with the visit. Rated 5.0 stars across 1,138 reviews on Google, Angi, Yelp, the BBB and Facebook, Virginia Class A license 2705192276.
Questions people ask
Why is my electric bill so high in winter?
In Northern Virginia it’s usually heat. A heat pump’s backup strips, an electric water heater and space heaters all turn electricity into heat one to one. The average Virginia home rate also rose about 11 percent from August 2025 to August 2026.
Does AUX heat use a lot of electricity?
Yes. AUX means the electric backup strips are on, and they make one unit of heat per unit of electricity, while the heat pump can deliver up to three. A little AUX on the coldest mornings is normal. AUX all day means something needs a look.
Should I keep my heat pump at one temperature?
Mostly, yes. A big setback can call the backup strips when you turn it back up. DOE and CEE heat pump guides say keep it steady and set it back only if you’ll be gone more than a day.
How much electricity does a space heater use?
A 1,500 watt space heater on high uses 1.5 kilowatt hours for every hour it runs. Six or seven of them running at once draw about what a 10 kW heat strip kit does.
