The August 2026 Eversource Rate Increase & Bedford Winter Heating

Last checked: August 6, 2026  •  Rates verified against Eversource's published NH supply rate schedule

What Changed on August 1 and What It Means for Your System

On August 1, 2026, the supply portion of the Eversource residential electric rate in New Hampshire moved from 11.303 cents per kilowatt-hour to 14.009 cents — an increase of 23.94 percent that holds through January 31, 2027. That window is not an accident of the calendar. It covers the entire first half of the heating season, which is precisely why a rate change that looks like a summer news item lands on your December bill.

What Changed on August 1, 2026

• The new residential supply rate is 14.009 cents per kWh — effective August 1, 2026 through January 31, 2027 for Eversource residential customers on the default service rate
• The previous rate was 11.303 cents per kWh, in effect from February 1 through July 31, 2026 — so the change is 2.706 cents per kWh, or 23.94 percent
• This is not a permanent estimate — New Hampshire supply rates reset twice a year, on February 1 and August 1, and the next reset lands squarely in the back half of winter
• It applies to supply only — the expense of the electricity itself, not the expense of moving it to your house
• It does not apply if you buy supply elsewhere — households on a community power program or a competitive supplier are on that contract's estimate instead, though their delivery charges are unchanged

The Part of Your Bill That Didn't Move

compare fuels by delivered heat

delivered heat by fuel — August 2026 Estimates

• Natural gas is deliberately absent here. Bedford has gas along its main corridors, gas supply moves on its own schedule rather than with this electric change, and we are not going to invent a rate to fill the row. If you are on the mains, run the same conversion using the estimate on your own gas bill.

Where a Heat Pump Stops Winning — the Honest Version

What This Means for a Bedford House in Particular

• Multi-zone homes have more places to leak money. Two systems, several zones, dampers, and staging mean more settings that can be quietly wrong. A zone board calling for backup heat that the heat pump could have covered is invisible on the thermostat and extremely visible on a 14-cent supply rate.
• Dual fuel is the setup this crossover was made for. Bedford's mains support exactly the configuration the math above describes: the heat pump takes the many hours above the crossover, the furnace takes the few below it. The switchover setpoint is what decides which fuel pays for each hour, and it is a setting, not a fixed property of the equipment.

What to Do Before November

• Calculate your real all-in rate. Total bill divided by total kWh. It takes thirty seconds and replaces every estimate on this page with a fact about your own house.
• Ask your dealer about budget, pre-buy, and cap plans before the season estimates out. These smooth cash flow and can hedge estimate, but a cap is a product with an expense built in — ask what that expense is rather than assuming protection is free.
• Verify the dual-fuel switchover setpoint if you run a heat pump alongside a furnace. Set too high, you burn fuel through hours the heat pump would have covered cheaply; set too low, you run the heat pump into its inefficient range. This is a service-visit adjustment, not a purchase.
• Service the heat pump before it carries a winter. A system low on refrigerant or running dirty coils loses COP, and COP is the entire economic argument — a unit limping at 2.2 instead of 3.0 quietly hands back most of its advantage over oil.

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