Research
Mobile home HVAC, measured
How manufactured homes are heated and cooled, and how often their owners go without, from the federal home energy survey.
Written by HYRE HVAC Research Desk Primary-source research, data analysis and fact checking
The finding
Mobile home HVAC looks very different from a site-built house. Of the 6.8 million occupied manufactured homes in the US, 56.6% heat mainly with electricity and 24.0% with a heat pump, against 26.3% and 13.7% of single-family houses.
They are also 3.2 times as likely to have gone without heat because broken equipment could not be afforded: 7.9% against 2.5%.
How are mobile homes heated?
Mostly with electricity, and often with a heat pump. 56.6% of manufactured homes use electricity as the main heating fuel. Natural gas heats 23.4% and propane 10.1%. In single-family houses the order is reversed: gas 57.9%, electricity 26.3%.
The central furnace is still the most common single system, in 52.6% of manufactured homes. Heat pumps come next at 24.0%, nearly all of them ducted (23.1%). Many manufactured homes have ducts running under the floor, which a ducted heat pump can use if they are in good shape.
One figure stands out: 8.8% of manufactured homes use portable electric heaters as their main heat, against 1.6% of single-family houses.
Space heaters are a fire and electrical risk when used as the main heat; follow the maker’s instructions and keep them clear of anything that burns.
If a portable heater is doing the job because the furnace has failed, our furnace not blowing air guide covers what is safe to check first.
Where are manufactured homes, and does it change the equipment?
Most are in the South. Of 6.8 million occupied manufactured homes, about 3.9 million are in the South, where 36.6% heat with a heat pump. In the Northeast, with about 497 thousand, the survey sample is too thin for a reliable heat pump share (too few respondents).
The climate under them is warmer than average. Manufactured homes average 1,917 cooling degree days a year, against 1,678 for single-family houses.
They are also small: the median manufactured home in the survey has 1,200 square feet of space, against 2,000 for a single-family house.
A small home may need a smaller system than its climate suggests, which matters when sizing; see our AC sizing calculator.
How are mobile homes cooled?
Less often with central air. 58.0% of manufactured homes use central air conditioning, against 75.3% of single-family houses. 28.9% cool mainly with a window, wall or portable unit, more than twice the single-family share of 13.2%.
11.2% have no air conditioning at all, close to the 9.5% for single-family houses. Given that manufactured homes sit in hotter places, that is a meaningful gap in protection from heat. Our cooling divide study looks at who goes without cooling and why.
For a home with ducts that are in poor shape, a ductless system is one option; see mini-split vs central air.
How often do mobile home owners go without heat or cooling?
About three times as often as single-family households. RECS asks whether, in the past year, the household could not use its heating or cooling because the equipment was broken and they could not afford to fix or replace it.
7.9% of manufactured-home households said yes for heating and 10.1% for cooling. The single-family figures are 2.5% and 4.4%.
HyreHVAC analysis: this is mostly an income story, not an equipment story.
Manufactured homes house many lower-income households, and the same survey shows unaffordable repairs fall steeply as income rises; see our HVAC repair statistics.
Help may exist through the federal Weatherization Assistance Program and LIHEAP; see HVAC incentives and the state rebate status tracker.
If heat has failed in winter and anyone in the home is at risk from the cold, treat it as urgent. Our is this an HVAC emergency? checker helps decide.
How do manufactured homes compare on every measure?
| Measure | Manufactured home | Single-family detached | All homes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heat pump is the main heating equipment | 24.0% (± 1.8) | 13.7% (± 0.3) | 13.9% (± 0.2) |
| Central (ducted) heat pump | 23.1% (± 1.8) | 13.0% (± 0.3) | 13.1% (± 0.2) |
| Ductless mini-split heat pump | too few respondents | 0.7% (± 0.1) | 0.9% (± 0.1) |
| Central furnace | 52.6% (± 1.9) | 68.8% (± 0.4) | 60.2% (± 0.4) |
| Built-in electric units (baseboard, wall, ceiling) | 3.5% (± 0.7) | 2.3% (± 0.1) | 6.2% (± 0.2) |
| Portable electric heaters as the main heat | 8.8% (± 1.1) | 1.6% (± 0.1) | 2.5% (± 0.2) |
| Electricity is the main heating fuel | 56.6% (± 1.5) | 26.3% (± 0.3) | 34.5% (± 0.3) |
| Natural gas is the main heating fuel | 23.4% (± 1.5) | 57.9% (± 0.4) | 50.8% (± 0.4) |
| Propane is the main heating fuel | 10.1% (± 1.1) | 5.5% (± 0.3) | 4.2% (± 0.2) |
| Has any air conditioning | 88.8% (± 1.1) | 90.5% (± 0.3) | 88.7% (± 0.3) |
| Uses central air conditioning | 58.0% (± 1.9) | 75.3% (± 0.4) | 67.3% (± 0.4) |
| Window, wall or portable unit is the main cooling | 28.9% (± 1.7) | 13.2% (± 0.3) | 19.5% (± 0.4) |
| No air conditioning | 11.2% (± 1.1) | 9.5% (± 0.3) | 11.3% (± 0.3) |
| Main heating equipment 20+ years old (of homes that heat) | 15.3% (± 1.2) | 17.0% (± 0.4) | 20.0% (± 0.4) |
| Main cooling equipment 20+ years old (of homes with AC) | 7.5% (± 0.9) | 9.3% (± 0.3) | 9.6% (± 0.3) |
| Could not use heating: broken and could not afford repair | 7.9% (± 1.3) | 2.5% (± 0.2) | 2.7% (± 0.2) |
| Could not use AC: broken and could not afford repair | 10.1% (± 1.2) | 4.4% (± 0.2) | 4.5% (± 0.2) |
| Owner-occupied | 78.8% (± 1.6) | 89.0% (± 0.3) | 67.1% (± 0.3) |
RECS 2020. 974 manufactured homes and 12,319 single-family detached houses in the sample. Standard errors in brackets.
A cell reading "too few respondents" has a relative standard error above 30%, the level at which EIA itself stops publishing.
How did we calculate these figures?
EIA RECS 2020 public use file, version 7, downloaded October 26, 2026. RECS calls the category “mobile home” (TYPEHUQ = 1); we use manufactured home and mobile home as the same thing here, as most readers do.
Single-family detached houses (TYPEHUQ = 2), the closest site-built equivalent. All homes are shown too.
Heat pump means the main heating equipment is a central or ductless heat pump. Main fuel is FUELHEAT. Central AC counts central equipment as main or secondary cooling. Repair hardship uses NOHEATBROKE and NOACBROKE, asked of every household.
Standard errors from the 60 replicate weights. The count of manufactured homes has no sampling error because the survey weights are controlled to that total.
What does this data leave out?
Manufactured homes built before the 1976 federal HUD Code and those built after are mixed together. Their duct and insulation standards differ.
974 manufactured homes is a solid national sample, but splitting it by state or by region outside the South gets thin fast.
This page does not cover what equipment or repairs cost. For that, see the cost guides; we do not publish price figures without sourced quotes behind them.
How should you cite this study?
Please cite it as: HyreHVAC Research Desk, “Mobile home HVAC, measured,” hyrehvac.com/research/manufactured-housing-hvac/, from EIA RECS 2020 microdata retrieved October 26, 2026. The chart may be reused with that credit and a link. The CSV below has every figure with its standard error.
Questions
What kind of HVAC system does a mobile home have?
Can you put a heat pump in a mobile home?
Do most mobile homes have central air?
How many mobile homes are there in the US?
Is a space heater safe as the main heat in a mobile home?
Written and audited by
HYRE HVAC Research Desk
Primary-source research, data analysis and fact checking
We are a research desk, not a sales floor. We read the federal microdata file, the statute or the manufacturer data sheet ourselves, and we publish the figure with the document it came from and the date we retrieved it.
Where a number cannot be traced to a primary source, we publish the shorter page and say what we could not verify.
The counts below are generated from the published pages themselves, last counted October 26, 2026, and they are what we have actually published rather than what we intend to.
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Planning a system for a manufactured home?
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