Pennsylvania Heating

Heat pump vs furnace in Delaware County, Pennsylvania

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Which costs less to run in Delaware County?

An outdoor air conditioner condenser unit on a concrete pad against a dark horizontal-siding wall at night, lit by an overhead light, with a wall-mounted disconnect box and conduit to the right and gravel with fallen leaves around the pad.

Heat pump

To heat your home here$2.37per 100,000 Btu

A beige gas furnace standing on a concrete floor against a dark blue wall, with a metal flue pipe and gas piping running up from its top.

Furnace

To heat your home here$1.64per 100,000 Btu

At Pennsylvania's gas and electricity prices, a gas furnace makes the same heat as a heat pump for at least 30% less.

Btu stands for British thermal unit, the standard measure of heat energy.

Where does a heat pump shine?

  • No gas line, nothing burning in the house

    It moves heat instead of making it from fire. That means no combustion, no flue and no gas bill for heat.

    Kitchen with navy blue cabinets, light speckled stone countertops, white subway tile backsplash, stainless range hood and wall oven, a kettle on a cooktop, hydrangeas in a glass jar, a bowl of lemons, and wooden stools at an island.

  • Heats and cools in one system

    Winter and summer are covered by the same outdoor unit. That's one machine to service instead of two.

    A living room with a cream sofa, blue pillows and a fringed blue throw beside a large blue-framed window looking onto a green garden, with a stone fireplace, wooden coffee table holding apples, a mug and white hydrangeas, and blue built-in shelves.

  • Steady, even comfort

    Instead of short bursts of heat, it keeps a gentle, steady output going. The house stays at one comfortable temperature.

    A dimly lit interior corner with a beige armchair holding a gray cushion, plaid blanket and open book, a lit table lamp and mug on a round side table, a floor lamp, dark bookshelves, and a golden-colored dog sleeping on a patterned rug beside a window showing snow outside.

Where does a furnace shine?

  • Runs on the gas most homes here already use

    Most homes in Delaware County already have a gas line run for the furnace, so sticking with gas heat usually means no new fuel source to install. If a gas furnace is what the house came with, replacing it with another one keeps things simple.

    A row of houses along a snowy residential street, with a blue-painted porch and railing in the foreground, a gas meter and pipes on the wall, and a cleared sidewalk at left.

  • Proven, simple, easy to get serviced

    Parts are easy to find and most repairs are routine. Getting one fixed rarely means waiting on a specialist.

    A gloved hand holds a white pleated air filter in front of a furnace and shelving in a basement utility area.

  • Fast, strong heat on demand

    Turn the heat up and the furnace answers right away. There's no long wait for the house to catch up.

    Entryway with a navy door with a window showing snowy trees, snow-dusted winter boots on a wood floor beside a jute rug, a floor vent under a sheer-curtained window, and a navy bench with a wood top holding a steaming mug and a blanket, with coats hanging above.

What winter actually asks of a heat pump here

Winter here is the long season. Heat runs seven months, October through April, against four months of cooling. That split matters because it's the furnace or heat pump doing most of the work, most of the year, not the air conditioning.

The overnight low averages 27°F across December, January and February. That number sits below both marks that matter for a heat pump: below 40°F its heat output falls short of its rating, and below about 35°F it often needs backup heat. An average winter night here is colder than either line.

It's not a constant deep freeze. The low hits freezing or below on about 75 nights a year, under half the nights of the heating season. Of those 75, only about one night in a typical year reaches 0°F. So the cold that matters here is mild cold, repeated often, not extreme cold.

A standard heat pump handles that kind of cold, but not at full strength. It will lean on backup heat on a good number of those 75 nights. A cold climate model, the kind certified to hold 70 percent of its capacity at 5°F, is built for exactly this pattern of frequent mild freezes rather than rare deep ones. Field tests of that kind of equipment back this up: backup heat covered only a small share of the output between 0°F and 35°F, and running on backup alone was rare even above 0°F.

Summer asks much less of either machine. The afternoon high averages 85°F in June, July and August, and only climbs to 90°F or higher on about 30 days a year. A heat pump cools as part of the same system that heats, which a furnace cannot do.

A blue front door with white trim and sidelights on a light blue clapboard house, flanked by potted yellow and red chrysanthemums and a small pumpkin on granite steps covered with fallen autumn leaves.

What it costs to run, and what's already in the house

At Pennsylvania's average prices, a gas furnace makes 100,000 Btu of heat for $1.64. A heat pump makes the same heat for $2.37. A gas furnace is the cheaper of the two to run, by a real margin, figured at each machine's federal minimum efficiency with nothing added for backup heat on the coldest nights.

That comparison only applies if gas is an option. Three in five homes in Delaware County heat with utility gas. For those homes, the furnace is both the cheaper machine to run and the one that matches what's already piped in.

About one in four homes here heat with electricity already, and for those homes a heat pump is not a new kind of utility bill, just a different way of using the one they have. Against oil, the comparison flips: an oil furnace costs $3.03 to make the same 100,000 Btu, more than either gas or electric. About one in ten homes here heat with oil, and for those homes a heat pump costs less to run than what they have now.

So the choice splits on what's already at the house. Where gas is already run in, a furnace costs less to install and less to run. Where the house heats with oil or has no gas line, a heat pump is worth pricing against a new oil furnace, since it beats oil on running cost and adds cooling a furnace can't do.

Sources: NOAA nClimDiv · NOAA 1991–2020 seasonal normals · Census ACS 2020–2024 · EIA SEDS 2024 · 10 CFR 430.32 · PNNL Building America guide · PNNL-37127 field study · ENERGY STAR product criteria

A two-story dark blue clapboard house with white trim, a light blue front door and a brick chimney, framed by trees with yellow and red autumn leaves, with a fieldstone wall and fallen leaves in the foreground.

Common questions about heat pumps and furnaces

  • Can a heat pump heat a house through a Pennsylvania winter?

    Yes, but a standard heat pump works harder to do it. Its heating output falls below its rating once it's under 40°F outside, and below about 35°F it often needs backup heat to keep up. The average overnight low here in December, January and February is 27°F, so a standard heat pump is leaning on backup heat most winter nights. A cold-climate heat pump is built to hold onto more of its capacity down to 5°F, and field tests of those units found backup heat covered only a small share of the load between 0°F and 35°F.

  • Do I need backup heat with a heat pump here?

    For a standard heat pump, yes. Its output drops below rating under 40°F and it often needs backup heat below about 35°F, and the average overnight low here runs 27°F all winter. A cold-climate heat pump needs less of it, since that design is tested to keep most of its heating capacity down to 5°F, and backup heat covered only a small share of the coldest hours in field testing.

  • Can I keep my furnace and add a heat pump?

    Yes, that setup is called a dual fuel system. The heat pump handles the milder nights, and the furnace takes over once it gets too cold for the heat pump to keep up or to make sense on cost. In Delaware County that split matters most of all the about 75 nights a year here that hit freezing or below.

  • Is a heat pump cheaper to run than a furnace in Delaware County?

    No, a gas furnace is cheaper to run here. A furnace makes 100,000 Btu of heat for $1.64 at Pennsylvania's gas prices, against $2.37 for a heat pump at federal minimum efficiency. If your house heats with oil instead, that math flips: oil runs $3.03 for the same heat, more than either one.

A gloved worker kneels beside a white outdoor heat pump unit on a concrete pad, handling refrigerant line connections, with coiled red and blue hoses and an open tool bag on gravel nearby.

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