Providence / Cranston
Cranston is about 5 miles from the Census center point for Providence in a straight line and covers 28.345 square miles of land (Census 2024 Gazetteer internal points and land area, https://www2.census.gov/geo/docs/maps-data/data/gazetteer/2024_Gazetteer/, checked 2026-10-19).
Cranston has 83,250 residents (give or take 48) (ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B01003, https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT5Y2024.B01003?g=060XX00US4400719180, checked 2026-10-19), about 2,937 people per square mile.
The quote form takes a ZIP code; for Cranston that is 02823, 02905, 02910, 02920, 02921 (Census 2020 ZCTA to county subdivision relationship file, ZIP areas at least 20% inside the town, https://www2.census.gov/geo/docs/maps-data/data/rel2020/zcta520/tab20_zcta520_cousub20_natl.txt, checked 2026-10-19).
Of the 32,595 occupied homes in Cranston, 66% heat with natural gas, 21% with heating oil, 10% with electricity and 3% with propane (ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25040, https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT5Y2024.B25040?g=060XX00US4400719180, checked 2026-10-19).
Cranston has about the Providence County oil share of 20% and 3 points less electric heat than the county's 13% (ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25040, https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT5Y2024.B25040?g=050XX00US44007, checked 2026-10-19).
Gas leads in Cranston at 66%, but 23% of homes still burn delivered oil or propane, and those 7,497 or so homes are where a heat pump pays back fastest.
The median Cranston home was built in 1958 (ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25035, https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT5Y2024.B25035?g=060XX00US4400719180, checked 2026-10-19) and the median home has 5.6 rooms (ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25018, https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT5Y2024.B25018?g=060XX00US4400719180, checked 2026-10-19).
Cranston has 33,834 housing units, 29% built before 1940 and 78% before 1980, with 7% built in 2000 or later (ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25034, https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT5Y2024.B25034?g=060XX00US4400719180, checked 2026-10-19).
Cranston has 7 points fewer pre-1940 homes than Providence County as a whole (36%) (ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25034, https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT5Y2024.B25034?g=050XX00US44007, checked 2026-10-19).
Only 7% of Cranston homes are new enough to pass a weatherization check on age, and 29% date from before 1940, so most of the other 93% show it with an assessment: Clean Heat Rhode Island requires that the home must be sufficiently weatherized: built on or after January 1, 2000, or all weatherization recommendations completed, or a home energy assessment showing under $1,000 in recommended work (Clean Heat Rhode Island incentives, registry row 2 verified 2026-10-14, https://cleanheatri.com/incentives, checked 2026-10-19).
63% of Cranston homes are single-family detached, 18% are in two- to four-unit buildings and 16% are in buildings of five or more units (ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25024, https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT5Y2024.B25024?g=060XX00US4400719180, checked 2026-10-19).
32% of Cranston homes are rented (ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25003, https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT5Y2024.B25003?g=060XX00US4400719180, checked 2026-10-19), so beside the 63% detached houses there is a real share of jobs where the landlord, not the resident, signs the quote.
Cranston has 18 points more detached houses than Providence County overall (45%) (ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25024, https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT5Y2024.B25024?g=050XX00US44007, checked 2026-10-19).
Rhode Island Energy publishes no town-by-town service list that names Cranston, so this page does not say which utility bills the 32,595 occupied homes in Cranston; the state energy office says: "Rhode Island Energy, the largest of the three, manages the distribution system for 99 percent of the state; Block Island Power Company and the Pascoag Utility District serve the remaining areas on Block Island and in western Burrillville, respectively." (Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources, Learn About Electricity (electric distribution utilities and the areas they serve), https://energy.ri.gov/electric/learn-about-electricity, checked 2026-10-19). The name on the electric bill decides which rebate path applies.
If the Cranston electric bill comes from Rhode Island Energy, the standard heat pump rebate is up to $625 per ton for Rhode Island Energy customers switching to central or mini-split electric heat pump equipment, and the enhanced rebate is $1,500 per ton for homes that currently heat with electric baseboards, for equipment installed through December 31, 2026; it is not income-based (Rhode Island Energy residential heat pump rebate, registry row 35 verified 2026-10-16, https://rienergy.com/site/ways-to-save/save-money-with-rebates-and-incentives/electric-heating-and-cooling, checked 2026-10-19). Electricity already heats 10% of Cranston homes, about 3,260 of them, and those on baseboard are the ones the enhanced tier is written for.
Clean Heat Rhode Island is the state income-eligible program, separate from the utility rebate: it pays 60% of the heat pump system and installation cost up to $11,500 per address, with a $18,000 lifetime cap per address, for household income below 150% of state median income, for homes whose existing primary heat is natural gas, propane or oil; in Cranston that is about 29,336 of the 32,595 occupied homes, the 66% on gas, 21% on oil and 3% on propane, and it is available to all Rhode Island electric utility customers (Rhode Island Energy, Clear River, Block Island Power) (Clean Heat Rhode Island incentives, registry row 2 verified 2026-10-14, https://cleanheatri.com/incentives, checked 2026-10-19).
Median household income in Cranston is $90,206 (ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B19013, https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT5Y2024.B19013?g=060XX00US4400719180, checked 2026-10-19); Clean Heat Rhode Island is for household income below 150% of state median income, and the Cranston median sits under the one-person limit of $124,950 published for the program (Clean Heat Rhode Island incentives, registry row 2 verified 2026-10-14, https://cleanheatri.com/incentives, checked 2026-10-19), though the limit rises with household size and is decided household by household.
Heating design temperature: 2F. Source: ENERGY STAR Design Temperature Limit Reference Guide (2019 Edition), Providence County row, 99% heating, PDF page 105 of 141 (Revised 11/11/2020), https://www.energystar.gov/sites/default/files/Design%20Temperature%20Limit%20Reference%20Guide%20(2019%20Ed)%20-%20ENERGY%20STAR%20Single-Family%20New%20Homes_Rev11.pdf, fetched 2026-10-19, 99%.
That 2F figure is the Providence County cold-day number a Cranston heat pump is sized against, so ask the installer to show the system's heating output at 2F, not at the milder rating-label temperature.
Ask which rooms the heat pump will carry and whether the gas boiler stays, because with 66% of Cranston on gas and 10% already electric the income-eligible program pays on fossil displacement in the zones served and the utility rebate pays per ton.
Ask for the heat-loss calculation room by room; the median Cranston home has 5.6 rooms and was built around 1958, and the count of heads and the tonnage follow the rooms and the insulation, not the square footage.
The form on this page is the follow-up for Cranston. The public number is the number the contractor quotes from.
No local contractor is named on this door for Cranston yet. A request from this page goes to the first licensed shop that takes the door.