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Heat With Electricity on ComEd? One Line on Your Bill Can Halve Your Delivery Rate — and What Electric Heat Costs This Winter
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Heat With Electricity on ComEd? One Line on Your Bill Can Halve Your Delivery Rate — and What Electric Heat Costs This Winter

Ryan Cook••

If your ComEd home heats entirely with electricity, check one line on your bill today. ComEd has a separate electric space heat delivery class, and on bills issued since April 2026 it charges a Distribution Facilities Charge of 3.215¢ per kWh instead of 6.333¢ for a single-family home. On a 2,000 kWh January bill, that's worth an estimated $59 a month even after the class's slightly higher fixed charges. Ameren Illinois handles electric heat differently: from October through May, every residential customer automatically pays less for each kWh above 800 in a month, which is where heating usage lands.

The ComEd class is easy to miss. Nothing on the bill tells you you're in the wrong one, and ComEd's own page tells electric-heat customers to call and ask whether they qualify. Here's how to check, what it's worth, and what heating with electricity will cost on both utilities this winter.

Key facts: electric heat and your 2026 Illinois bill

Line Figure In effect
ComEd delivery, single-family without electric space heat 6.333¢/kWh + 0.128¢ distribution tax; $15.50 customer + $3.87 metering Bills from April 2026
ComEd delivery, single-family with electric space heat 3.215¢/kWh + 0.136¢ distribution tax; $18.45 customer + $4.09 metering Bills from April 2026
ComEd delivery, multi-family with electric space heat 3.043¢/kWh + 0.135¢; $13.14 customer + $4.07 metering Bills from April 2026
ComEd delivery, multi-family without electric space heat 4.872¢/kWh + 0.128¢; $11.69 customer + $3.88 metering Bills from April 2026
Who qualifies for ComEd's space-heat rate Space heating fully electric, including backup and secondary heat, or a heat pump conversion that makes it so ComEd Go Electric, current
ComEd supply (Price to Compare) 10.399¢/kWh; last winter 9.689¢ (Oct–Dec 2025) and 9.660¢ (Jan–May 2026) Through Sept 30, 2026
ComEd supply, Oct 2026–May 2027 (Price to Compare) 10.103¢/kWh (8.413¢ supply + 1.69¢ transmission); ComEd's filed sheets showed about 9.964¢ Oct 1, 2026 – May 31, 2027 (ICC Plug In Illinois)
Ameren Illinois delivery 7.811¢ summer; 4.572¢ first 800 kWh and 2.427¢ above, non-summer 2026 billing periods
Ameren Illinois non-summer energy charge 7.310¢ first 800 kWh, 5.131¢ above Effective October 2026
Ameren Illinois supply, Oct 2026 (Price to Compare) 10.441¢ first 800 kWh, 8.262¢ above Oct 1, 2026 – May 31, 2027 (ICC Plug In Illinois)

Which ComEd class are you in?

Pull a recent ComEd bill and find the Charge Details section. ComEd prints a short description of your delivery rate classification there, and four cover almost every home: Residential – Single, Residential – Multiple, Residential – Space Heat Single, and Residential – Space Heat Multiple.

If the house heats with electricity and the bill says plain "Residential – Single," you're likely paying the standard 6.333¢ distribution charge on every kilowatt-hour. The fix is a phone call to 1-800-EDISON1 asking to be reviewed for the space-heat classification.

The qualification rule is stricter than people expect. In ComEd's words, customers "whose space heating is already fully electric or who install an electric heat pump that converts their heating system, including any back-up and/or secondary heating, to all-electric qualify for the electric space heat rate." A heat pump with a gas furnace as backup (a dual-fuel setup) doesn't meet that test. Neither does a gas-heated house with a couple of plug-in heaters. Baseboard, electric furnaces, geothermal, and all-electric heat pumps with electric-strip backup are the homes this class is built for.

What the space-heat class is worth

ComEd's supply charge is the same residential price either way; the difference is all on the delivery side. The space-heat class costs $3.17 more a month in fixed charges and saves 3.11¢ on every kWh, so it pulls ahead after roughly 100 kWh. A house that heats with electricity clears that in the first few days of any winter billing period.

Monthly usage Delivery, standard class Delivery, space-heat class Estimated monthly savings
1,000 kWh $84 $56 $28
2,000 kWh $149 $90 $59
3,000 kWh $213 $123 $90

Over a year, an all-electric home using 15,000 kWh would save an estimated $430. And because the discount applies to the whole meter, the refrigerator, lights, and dryer get the lower delivery rate too, not just the heat.

What electric heat costs this winter, per hour and per month

A standard 1,500-watt space heater uses 1.5 kWh for every hour it runs on high. Multiply by the all-in supply-plus-delivery price and you have the hourly cost. The ComEd rows use the October 2026 through May 2027 supply and transmission charges ComEd filed with the state in August, 8.241¢ plus 1.723¢, because the ICC hadn't posted the official October Price to Compare as of September 24. The Ameren rows use my estimate from Ameren's October rate sheet.

Updated September 30, 2026: the Illinois Commerce Commission has now posted the October 1, 2026 – May 31, 2027 Prices to Compare. ComEd's is 10.103¢/kWh (8.413¢ supply plus 1.69¢ transmission), 0.139¢ above the 9.964¢ from ComEd's filed sheets used for the ComEd estimates in this post, so those run about 0.14¢ per kWh low. Ameren Illinois' is 10.441¢ on the first 800 kWh and 8.262¢ above 800, matching the Ameren estimates here.

Utility and tier Supply + delivery per kWh 1,500 W heater, per hour 8 hours a day for 30 days (360 kWh)
Ameren, inside the first 800 kWh (est.) 15.0¢ 22.5¢ $54
Ameren, above 800 kWh (est.) 10.7¢ 16¢ $38
ComEd, standard class (est.) 16.4¢ 24.6¢ $59
ComEd, space-heat class (est.) 13.3¢ 20¢ $48

None of that includes taxes or the small state program riders; on Ameren's own sample bill those came to about 1.8¢ per kWh. It also isn't a case for heating a whole house with plug-in heaters. A space heater makes sense for one cold room while the rest of the house runs cooler, and that's about it.

For a whole all-electric house, a 2,000 kWh winter month comes out to an estimated $263 on Ameren, $348 in ComEd's standard class, and $289 in ComEd's space-heat class, before taxes and riders. That's the surprise in the numbers: for heavy winter users, Ameren is the cheaper utility, even though its summer supply-plus-delivery price runs higher than ComEd's. The full season-by-season comparison is in the average Illinois electric bill breakdown.

Ameren's winter break is automatic

Ameren Illinois doesn't have a separate heat class to request. Its non-summer schedule, October through May, splits each month at 800 kWh, and everything above that line is cheaper on both halves of the bill. Delivery drops from 4.572¢ to 2.427¢. The October 2026 rate sheet puts the energy charge at 7.310¢ on the first 800 kWh and 5.131¢ above, which with transmission and adjustments works out to an estimated 10.44¢ and 8.26¢. Ameren's June annual sheet listed slightly different non-summer figures, so the first-tier price could land closer to 10.2¢ once the ICC posts it.

For a house in Decatur or Belleville with baseboard heat, that means the heating kilowatt-hours past 800 cost about 10.7¢ each before taxes, compared with about 19.1¢ on the same basis this August. Every Ameren line is broken out in the Ameren bill explained, and the current numbers live on the Ameren rates page.

One more ComEd option for electric heat

ComEd also runs an hourly pricing program, and it markets it directly to electric-heat homes. ComEd says participants who use electric heat "saved an average of 30% on their energy supply costs" compared with its default rate, measured from January 2007 through May 2026. That's ComEd's own figure and a long-run average, not a promise for this winter; hourly prices can spike during a cold snap right when a heat pump works hardest. How the hourly and time-of-day options stack up is in ComEd time-of-day pricing: worth it?. Get the delivery class right first. It costs nothing, and it doesn't carry price risk.

Where solar fits for an all-electric home

I'll be straight with you: an electric-heat home uses the most power in the months solar makes the least. By my estimates from NREL solar resource data, output falls roughly 45 percent from summer to December downstate and closer to 54 percent up north, which I mapped town by town in how Illinois solar production drops in fall and winter. Systems connected since January 1, 2025 get supply-only net metering, so summer surplus earns supply credit, not delivery credit, and those credits have their own expiration rules, covered in when Illinois net metering credits expire.

What that means in practice: solar on an all-electric house earns most of its keep from spring through early fall, when supply and delivery prices are both at their highest. With a $0-down lease, the power the panels produce is billed at a predictable rate as low as $0.10 per kWh, with the full 25-year rate schedule set in the contract before you sign and a battery included. In an Ameren winter above 800 kWh, the utility's own supply price is below that, and I'd rather you hear it from me now than find it on a January bill. The year-round math is what matters, and solar lease cost per month in Illinois walks through it. Income-qualified households should look at Illinois Solar for All first, and anyone struggling with winter bills should check Illinois electric bill help and income limits.

Send me a recent ComEd or Ameren bill and I'll tell you which delivery class you're in, what your heating months really cost per kWh, and whether solar pencils out on your usage. All of it is estimates until it's your bill. Call (618) 217-2001, run it through the savings calculator, or get in touch here.

Sources

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. ComEd bills homes that heat with electricity under a separate delivery class, and its per-kWh delivery charge is roughly half the standard one. On bills issued since April 2026, a single-family home in the space-heat class pays a Distribution Facilities Charge of 3.215¢ per kWh plus a 0.136¢ distribution tax, compared with 6.333¢ plus 0.128¢ for a single-family home without electric heat. The space-heat class carries slightly higher fixed charges, $18.45 for the customer charge and $4.09 for metering versus $15.50 and $3.87, so it starts about $3.17 a month higher. The lower per-kWh charge wins that back after roughly 100 kWh, so nearly every electric-heat home comes out ahead. At 2,000 kWh in a January month, my estimate is about $59 saved. The lower charge applies to every kWh the house uses, lights and appliances included, not just the heating load.
Check your bill first, then call ComEd. The Charge Details section of a ComEd bill shows your delivery rate classification, and the four common residential ones are Residential – Single, Residential – Multiple, Residential – Space Heat Single, and Residential – Space Heat Multiple. If your house heats entirely with electricity and the bill says Residential – Single, call 1-800-EDISON1 and ask whether you qualify for the space-heat classification. ComEd's own wording is that customers whose space heating is already fully electric, or who install an electric heat pump that converts their heating system, including any back-up or secondary heating, to all-electric, qualify. That last part matters: a gas furnace kept as backup can keep a house out of the class, and a plug-in space heater in a gas-heated home doesn't qualify at all. ComEd's site tells customers to call to see if they qualify, so don't assume the change happened by itself after a heat pump install.
A standard 1,500-watt space heater uses 1.5 kWh an hour on high, so the cost is your all-in price per kWh times 1.5. This winter, my estimate is about 25¢ an hour in a standard ComEd home, using the October 2026 supply and transmission charges ComEd has filed with the state, about 9.96¢ combined, and about 20¢ an hour in ComEd's space-heat class. On Ameren Illinois it depends on where you are in the month: about 22.5¢ an hour while the house is inside its first 800 kWh, and about 16¢ an hour past 800 kWh, because both supply and delivery step down on that second tier from October through May. Run one heater eight hours a day for a month and that's 360 kWh, roughly $38 to $59 depending on utility and tier, before taxes and small riders. These are estimates built from published tariff lines, and the Ameren figures use Ameren's October rate sheet ahead of the official Price to Compare.
Not as a separate class you apply for, but its winter pricing does much of the same work automatically. From October through May, Ameren Illinois charges less for every kWh above 800 in a month, on both halves of the bill. Distribution delivery drops from 4.572¢ on the first 800 kWh to 2.427¢ above it, and Ameren's October 2026 rate sheet lists the energy charge at 7.310¢ on the first 800 kWh and 5.131¢ above. With transmission and adjustments added, I estimate a supply price near 10.44¢ on the first tier and 8.26¢ above, which the ICC had not confirmed as of September 24. An all-electric home using 2,000 kWh in a winter month lands at an estimated $263 before taxes and riders, compared with about $348 for the same usage in ComEd's standard class and $289 in ComEd's space-heat class. Summer is one tier with delivery at 7.811¢, so the break only helps October through May.

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