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Cape May County's housing stock runs from 1920s shore bungalows on crawl spaces to new construction on pilings, with everything in between. Natural gas mains run through some neighborhoods but not others, which means propane and oil are still very much in use. Add in homes that are occupied year-round versus homes that sit empty from October through May, and the "best" heating system really depends on the building in front of you, not a one-size-fits-all answer.
Gas, propane, and oil furnaces heat air and push it through ductwork, which makes them a natural fit for homes that already have a duct system or central air conditioning, since the same trunk lines can often be shared. They heat up fast, which suits weekend and seasonal homes where you want comfort quickly after arrival rather than waiting hours for a system to come up to temperature. The tradeoff is duct losses; older, leaky ductwork running through an unconditioned crawl space can waste a meaningful share of the heat before it ever reaches a register.
Many older shore homes still run on hot water baseboard heat fed by an oil or gas boiler, and there is a reason these systems have stuck around: they deliver steady, even heat without blowing dust and allergens around the house, and a well-maintained cast iron boiler can last decades. The downside is zoning flexibility and response time. Bringing a cold house up to temperature after a winter weekend away takes longer than a furnace, and adding air conditioning to a home with no ductwork means a separate system entirely.
Mini-splits have become a popular retrofit option for additions, sunrooms, and homes without existing ductwork, because installation doesn't require tearing open walls for duct runs. Modern cold-climate heat pumps perform well into the 20s and even lower, and the same equipment provides air conditioning in summer, which matters in a region where cooling load is just as real as heating load. They work best with a fairly steady thermostat setting; heat pumps recover from a deep setback far more slowly than a furnace, so cranking the temperature down to nothing while you're away and expecting a quick warm-up when you return usually backfires.
Plug-in space heaters have a real place in a cold sunroom or an occasionally-used guest room, but they are not a substitute for a properly sized whole-house system. They are a leading cause of house fires when left running unattended or placed too close to curtains, bedding, or furniture, and running several of them to compensate for an undersized or failing central system usually costs more on the electric bill than fixing the actual problem.
A year-round residence benefits from consistent, efficient equipment sized to the home's actual heat loss, ideally backed by a load calculation rather than a guess based on the old equipment's size. A seasonal or rental property has different priorities: quick recovery time after vacancy, freeze protection during the off-season, and equipment that's straightforward for a property manager or cleaning crew to understand at a glance.
The right system is the one sized and matched to your house, not whatever was popular when it was built fifty years ago.
If you're weighing a replacement or trying to figure out why a system never seems to keep up, Nece's Plumbing & Heating can walk through your specific home, fuel availability, and usage pattern before recommending anything.