Electric heat covers about 42 percent of the owner homes in ZIP 22124, and gas just under half. A heat pump shows up in the Census as electric heat, so call it roughly 2,500 Oakton owner homes on electricity. In a house here that’s usually one outdoor unit cooling through the summer and heating through the winter, backed by electric strips inside the air handler.
Electric heat isn’t spread evenly. The Oakton Census place, which takes in the condos, apartments and townhouses along Chain Bridge Road and Blake Lane, sits at about 42 percent electric. Out in Difficult Run, the big-lot area at the west end of Vale Road and Fox Mill Road where almost all the homes are detached houses, the electric share drops to about a third, with gas well ahead.
The gas half of Oakton has its own way into a heat pump. When the AC paired with a gas furnace gives out, a heat pump can sit on that same pad, cool the same way, and heat through the mild days, leaving January’s coldest nights to the burner. About four in a hundred Oakton owner homes burn propane, and a heat pump works alongside a propane furnace in just the same way. Our dual fuel guide covers the handoff.
Where the heat pump is the house’s only heat, size it for a cold Fairfax County night rather than off the old unit’s cooling label. A big two-story house on the lots north of Jermantown Road may have two, one per floor; they rarely fail together, and each gets its own price.