An electrical heater and method for heating a catalyst. The heater includes a honeycomb body having intersecting walls forming channels extending along a longitudinal axis. A plurality of electrically resistive paths are included, each including at least a portion of the plurality of intersecting walls and extending a length across the honeycomb body transverse to the longitudinal axis. A positive electrode and a negative electrode are in electrical communication with each other via the resistive paths. The positive electrode and the negative electrode are operatively positioned to generate a respective flow of current through each resistive path. The lengths of at least two of the resistive paths differ from each other. The resistive paths are configured with respect to the at least one positive electrode and the at least one negative electrode such that the current in each of the resistive paths is substantially equal.