Pennsylvania Heating

Heat pump vs furnace in Monroe County, Pennsylvania

Price a Replacement

Pros who work in Monroe County

Which costs less to run in Monroe County?

A gray outdoor condenser unit with a top-mounted fan grille sits on a concrete pad beside a dark blue horizontal lap-sided wall, with a refrigerant line and small disconnect box on the wall above.

Heat pump

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

A beige sheet-metal furnace with a louvered front panel stands on a concrete floor against a dark blue painted block wall, with a metal flue pipe and ductwork above and older pipes to the left.

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

    A heat pump runs on electricity alone. Nothing burns inside the house.

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  • Steady, even comfort

    It eases up and down with the weather. There are fewer swings between too warm and too cool.

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  • Heats and cools in one system

    A heat pump runs the same way all year. It pulls heat into the house in winter and pushes it out in summer.

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Where does a furnace shine?

  • Strong, steady heat in hard cold

    Overnight lows here average 19°F through December, January and February. A furnace burns gas to make heat, so it keeps putting out the same hot air no matter how cold it gets outside.

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  • Pairs with any central AC

    The ductwork that delivers heat in winter delivers cool air in summer once an AC coil is added.

    A dark metal floor vent set in hardwood flooring near a window with a billowing sheer white curtain, beside a blue wall, wooden cabinet with a potted plant, woven basket, and a patterned rug.

  • 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 ductwork in a utility area, with a blue door at left and wooden shelving holding a potted plant and basket at right.

What the cold here does to a heat pump

Winter is the real question here, more than running cost. The overnight low averages 19°F across December, January and February. A standard heat pump starts falling short of its rated heat output below 40°F, and below about 35°F it's usually leaning on backup heat. At 19°F, your average winter night is past both marks, not close to them.

This isn't about a few bad nights. About 140 nights a year here drop to freezing or below, more than half the nights across the eight months your heat runs. Those are the nights a standard heat pump is working hardest and putting out the least. Nights at 0°F or below only come about 4 times a year, a small share of the cold nights. So the real issue isn't the rare deep freeze. It's the long run of ordinary nights in the 20s and 30s, because a standard heat pump is already struggling by then.

A furnace doesn't have this problem, which is why it holds up as strong, steady heat in hard cold. If you do go with a heat pump here, the model matters more than the brand. One built to ENERGY STAR's Cold Climate spec has to make at least 1.75 units of heat per unit of electricity at 5°F and hold on to at least 70 percent of its 47°F capacity at that temperature, tested by a third party. That's the gap a standard heat pump can't close. In a two winter field test of these cold-climate models in occupied homes, backup heat covered only a small share of the load even between 0°F and 35°F, and running on backup alone was rare above 0°F.

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What each one costs to run, and what that means for your house

On running cost, the furnace wins outright. A gas furnace makes 100,000 Btu of heat for $1.64 at Pennsylvania's prices. A heat pump makes the same heat for $2.37, without anything added for the backup heat it will likely need on your coldest nights. An oil furnace runs highest at $3.03, so if your house heats with oil now, a heat pump actually costs less to run than what you have.

But only about one in ten homes in Monroe County heats with utility gas. A little under half run on electricity, and a little under one in four run on oil, with the rest on propane. So the real comparison depends on what's already running your house. If gas is already there, a furnace costs less to fuel and less to run than a heat pump, by a wide margin. If you're on oil, that gap narrows and flips, and a cold-climate heat pump is the cheaper system to move to.

Cooling is worth weighing in too, even though it's the shorter season here, July and August against eight months of heat. A heat pump heats and cools from one system. A furnace only heats, so it has nothing to do those two months, and it needs a separate air conditioner either way. If you already have a working central AC, pairing it with a furnace is the simpler path. If you're replacing both at once, a cold-climate heat pump is doing both jobs instead of running two systems.

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

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Common questions about heat pumps and furnaces

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

    Yes, but a standard heat pump needs help on the coldest nights. Below about 40°F its heat output falls under its rating, and below about 35°F it often needs backup heat to keep up. The overnight low here averages 19°F in December, January and February, and about 140 nights a year sit at or below freezing, so that's not a rare dip, it's most of the winter.

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

    Most likely, yes. A standard heat pump's output falls below its rating once it's under 40°F outside and it often needs backup heat below about 35°F, and the winter overnight low here averages 19°F. A cold-climate model does better, holding 70 percent of its capacity down to 5°F, but in this climate plan on some form of backup.

  • What if my house doesn't have a gas line?

    Without a gas line you're choosing between a heat pump and a furnace burning oil or propane. A heat pump comes out cheaper to run than either one here, $2.37 against $3.03 for oil and against $28.79 per million Btu for propane. It also heats and cools the house with one system, so you aren't running a separate AC.

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

    No, a gas furnace runs cheaper here, $1.64 per 100,000 Btu against $2.37 for a heat pump. That's at Pennsylvania's average fuel prices, with both machines built to the federal minimum efficiency. Only about one in ten homes here has utility gas to begin with, so the comparison only applies if gas is already run to your house.

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