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200 A 120/240 V, 60 Hz split-phase is the residential standard.

Where I am, whole-house AC isn't that common, although some people have heat pumps. I have a window unit that I use maybe 20 days out of the year, which is happy on a standard 120 V outlet. Forced-air is definitely the primary heating method, though it could be electric or gas. The only place you see LPG is out in the rural areas that are not served by CNG. Pellet stoves are gaining in popularity, and there are still a lot of people with old-fashioned wood stoves in the city and country. Oil has fallen out of popularity, although it's trying to make a comeback with "Clean" oil technology.

My duplex/apartment has a gas furnace, but an electric water heater and clothes dryer. During the winter, my gas bill has never been above USD $25, and the electric bill is usually around $50 (although that's included with my rent). The heat is used maybe 5 months out of the year, and even then not a lot. I have an old-fashioned on/off thermostat (non-programmable) so I only turn on the furnace when I am home and turn it off when I go to bed. It has a 100 A 120/240 service, which I assume was the original service to the house before it was split into two units. Original construction late 1940's or early 1950's, by my estimation.

Here in Houston TX 200a 120/240 is the norm, although 400a service is not uncommon. AC is the main load. We use it almost year around. We only have 30-45 heating days a year, some years more some less. Natural gas is the most common with electric a common second. Most homes with gas use it for water heating. As new technology comes to play, more homes have instant water heaters, ether gas or electric. Heat pumps are also more common with ether gas or electric as a backup. Robert

No way, the largest 120 volt service you will see is a 30A & those are ancient artifacts, homes like that would have gas heating,cooking,& water heaters.

On a cheap tract home here a 100 or 125A service is still commonly installed.

I know of a couple of people who installed heat-pumps here in Ireland and they've found them absolutely uneconomic to run. They were sold as 'energy saving' and 'environmentally friendly' as opposed to burning gas, oil, solid fuels etc but, they're just insanely expensive to operate on our power pricing and also I don't think the temperatures here really lend themselves to heat-pump technologies.

One of my friends installed a system and their heating bill went from about €90 euro a month with natural gas, to over €500 per month with a heat pump. So, naturally enough they are having a massive dispute with the guy who sold it to them.

Also, from an environmental point of view, certainly in this country anyway, it really doesn't make much sense right now as the vast majority of power is still fossil fuel generated. We have no nuclear, hydro's quite limited and large scale wind is only just coming on-stream in a big way.

Pricewise, it simply makes no sense here to heat with electricity.

Natural gas here works out at 5.46 cent (7.82 US Cents) per kWh (it's charged in kWh using a conversion factor nowadays rather than in cubic meters)

My electricity provider, Airtricity (wind power company) is charging :

Day rate: 15.53 cent (22.25 US Cents)
Night rate: 7.68 cent (11.00 US Cents)

So, as you can see there's a very significant financial reason to stay very far away from electric heating here.

(The majority of homes do use electric cooking though)

Also the hydronic systems seem to be vastly more energy-efficient compared to the heatpumps I've seen. The amount of power that goes in to produce that heat seems ridiculous given how little heat they actually produce.

The main fuels used :

Natural gas (via mains supply) - by far the biggest sector.

Gas-oil / Kerosine - pressure jet systems - common in less built up areas / rural areas. Fuel oils aren't used here for environmental reasons, hence it's kerosine / gas-oil.

LPG (Propane) via bulk tank delivery to a local storage tank located in the garden, or sometimes via very large cylinders which are delivered. Typically, there would be 4 or 5 of these all connected to a system to feed the house.

Solid fuels : Smoke-free coals, turf, wood etc for use in stoves and fireplaces (some of which heat radiators too)

Wood pellets: These are becoming a lot more popular, but mostly in rural / outer suburban areas as they're a bit impractical in built-up areas.

It is the complete opposite here in the Mid Atlantic and southern states of the US. As a matter of fact, our rates are the inverse of yours. The electric rates you are paying are roughly four times what we pay, yet our gas rates are about triple yours.

Surprisingly, Canada uses electricity for heating quite extensively despite their brutal winter temperatures. I attribute this to the vast access to hydroelectric power there, which is cheap and easy to produce.

I guess it really depends upon the rates you are paying because heat pump systems are largely popular in these regions.

Electricity is currently about 10 cents/kWh through Portland General Electric for residential service... They have a "renewable" option, for which I don't know the rate.

Gas is 1.018 cents per therm, which is about 30 kWh... So, 30 cents per kWh.

You would think that the Pacific Northwest would have lots of cheap energy due to hydro, but sadly most of that is sent down to California... 60-70% of PGE's mix is from Coal and Natural Gas from as far away as Montana. While PGE has some of its own hydro, most of the big dams are government-owned, and power is sold to the highest bidder.

Around here, electricity is somewhere between 15 and 25 cents (Euro), depending on the chosen tariff, gas is about 1/4 of that. Where ever natural gas is available, it is used for heating and hot water (with the occasional electric hot water tank in cheap remodels since electrical wiring is cheaper than gas plumbing and electric tank heaters are 1/10 the price of gas tankless heaters, gas tanks are far and few in between, I've seen one in my whole life, besides, Vienna code requires gas appliances to be chimney vented, impractical in many small old apartments that often didn't even have running water at the time they were built) along with some cooking, even though electric cooking is becoming a little more common.

In rural areas, oil and wood, along with wood chips and recently pellets are the most common heat sources. Large propane tanks do exist, but I don't see too many of them. Unlike in Hungary or Italy, cylinders are hardly used except for outdoor cooking (BBQs). Occasionally people do manage to blow up the whole place messing around with propane cylinders in the kitchen (last time it happened in Vienna was about 3 years ago I think, pushed out the front (brick) wall of a 4-storey apartment building by almost a foot, building nearly collapsed. No people harmed though, thankfully.

Cooking is the most common use for 3 phase power, even though the elements are actually 230V evenly distributed across the phases (usually 2 rings on one phase each and the oven on the third). By jumpering all three phase terminals can be connected to a single phase feed but that limits the use of the stove since cooking circuits exceeding 25A are usually impossible to install (instead of the 32 to 40A required for unlimited operation).