Massachusetts HVAC leads

How Massachusetts homes are heated

Massachusetts is a two-fuel state. Of its 1,741,158 owner-occupied homes, 906,818 burn utility gas as their main heating fuel and 531,352 burn fuel oil or kerosene, according to the Census Bureau’s table B25117 for 2020-2024. That oil share, 30.5%, ranks sixth among the 50 states. Electricity is third at 9.2%, followed by bottled, tank or LP gas.

For an HVAC buyer the split points to two different kinds of boiler and furnace work. A gas home calls for a gas-fired system and a gas fitter; an oil home has a burner, a tank and a chimney flue, and a replacement can mean another oil system, a switch to gas where a main reaches the street, or a heat pump. The table describes the homes themselves and says nothing about how requests divide between them.

Renters shift the picture. Across all 2,785,042 occupied homes, table B25040 (2020-2024 ACS) puts electric heat at 18.6%, about double the owner share, because apartments are more often electrically heated. Utility gas covers 51.6% of all occupied homes in the same table.

Massachusetts HVAC contractor licensing

Massachusetts licenses HVAC work by trade rather than through one HVAC license. Three state licensing programs under the Division of Occupational Licensure cover the main parts of a heating and cooling job:

• Sheet metal (ductwork and ventilation). The Board of Examiners of Sheet Metal Workers licenses masters and journeypersons on a restricted and unrestricted basis, plus apprentices and business entities. Its consumer fact sheet says only a licensed master or journeyperson, with a permit from the local building inspector, can perform sheet metal work at a home, and that restricted licensees are limited to residential dwellings of not more than 3 stories and smaller non-residential projects.
• Refrigeration (air conditioning and heat pump refrigerant circuits). The Office of Public Safety and Inspections issues apprentice, technician and contractor licenses. A refrigeration technician applicant documents 6,000 hours as a licensed apprentice under a Massachusetts refrigeration contractor or 450 hours of approved study, and attaches a copy of Universal CFC certification. The refrigeration contractor license lets the holder keep a place of business and employ licensed people, after 100 hours of additional training (checked October 8, 2026).
• Gas fitting (gas furnaces and boilers). The Board of State Examiners of Plumbers and Gas Fitters licenses journeyman and master gas fitters, who pipe fuel gas to appliances and install vent piping for flue gases, according to its consumer fact sheet.

A single installation can involve more than one of these licenses, for example ductwork by a sheet metal licensee and the refrigerant connections by a refrigeration technician. The Universal CFC requirement sits on top of the federal refrigerant rules under EPA Section 608.

Massachusetts counties by owner-occupied homes

Here are the ten Massachusetts counties with the most owner-occupied homes, with the share of those homes heated by utility gas and by fuel oil, the two fuels that matter most in this state. Source: ACS 5-year 2020-2024, tables B25003 and B25117 at county level. The table is about housing; it does not show where leads originate.

Worcester County is the outlier: oil heats 49.9% of its owner homes and gas only 27.8%, in the same county data (2020-2024 ACS). Suffolk, which contains Boston, is at the other end with 67.6% on gas and 11.5% on oil. Hampshire also leans to oil, at 37.4%.

What Massachusetts HVAC buyers filter on

The filters below are standard home services filters, each tied to a Massachusetts figure on this page:

• Project type: for example install, replace or repair, for heating or cooling. With heating degree days this high, heating replacement and repair is the common choice, and some buyers separate oil from gas work.
• Homeowner status: owners make up 1,741,158 of the state’s occupied homes and sign for new systems (ACS 2020-2024, B25003).
• Timeframe: an urgent no-heat repair in January is a different job from a planned spring replacement.
• ZIP code: buyers pick ZIP codes that match the licenses and fuels their crews handle, for example oil-heavy towns in Worcester County.

When HVAC opens, Massachusetts buyers will set these filters per campaign, down to the ZIP code, as on Summit’s other home services leads. Once HVAC opens, HVAC leads will be exclusive by default, with shared delivery on request. Every field is shown on the sample HVAC lead.