Public Interest in Gas Stoves, Heating Systems Has Inched Down Over the Past Year

As emissions levels and global warming tick up, so too does the number of studies raising concerns about the climate and public health impact of using fossil fuels in the home. While awareness of alternatives may remain low, Morning Consult surveys found that interest in natural gas stoves and heating systems has waned slightly over the past year.

What the numbers say, on stoves 

• Asked what type of cooktop or range they would consider purchasing or leasing, assuming they are in the market in the next decade, consumers were most likely to select electric stoves (63 percent), followed by gas (50 percent) and induction (32 percent). Interest in induction has remained steady since early 2021 when Morning Consult gathered responses on a range of consumer energy topics, but interest has decreased slightly for both electric (from 67 percent) and gas (from 55 percent) stoves over the same period. 
• But gas and electric stoves still dominate the market: Asked what type of cooktop or range they currently use, 39 percent said gas, 59 percent said electric and 3 percent said induction, per the latest survey.
• Nearly a third (32 percent) of respondents said they did not know or had no opinion about purchasing induction stoves in the next decade, compared with roughly 1 in 10 for both electric and gas stoves.

What the numbers say, on heating

• Electric furnaces and gas furnaces remain the most appealing heating systems to most U.S. consumers, with 27 percent and 22 percent, respectively, saying they would install them if they had the chance to replace their existing system. Both shares held relatively steady since 2021.
• Meanwhile, interest in heat pumps climbed from 11 percent to 14 percent, just outside the survey’s 2-percentage-point margin of error. The technology remains relatively uncommon, but recent research found that 32 percent of U.S. homes could benefit economically from installing them, and 70 percent could reduce their emissions by doing so.
• Nearly half of U.S. adults (46 percent) said they currently use natural gas to heat their home, while a nearly equal share (44 percent) said they do not.
• And the share of adults who say they would support local legislation to ban the use of natural gas in new construction has barely budged over the same period, inching down from 44 percent to 41 percent in support.

The impact

The data comes on the heels of a much-covered Stanford University study that found that gas stoves release far more methane and nitrogen dioxide than previously realized, posing a threat both to the climate and to public health. The study found that many of the appliances release emissions even when turned off, and all the stoves in the United States have an impact on global warming comparable to about 500,000 gas-powered cars per year.

And while both induction stoves and heat pumps remain fairly niche products in the American imagination, any suggestion that the public is losing interest in appliances and heating systems that rely on natural gas would be a boon for those advocating for speedy electrification. 

Surveys conducted Jan. 28-30, 2021, and Feb. 5-6, 2022, among representative samples of roughly 2,200 U.S. adults each, with unweighted margins of error of +/-2 percentage points.