Pennsylvania Heating

Heat pump vs furnace in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania

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Which costs less to run in Armstrong County?

An outdoor condenser unit with a top-mounted fan grille sits on a concrete pad beside dark horizontal lap siding, with a small electrical disconnect box on the wall above and mulch surrounding the pad.

Heat pump

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

A beige upright furnace with louvered panels stands on concrete blocks in a basement corner with dark blue walls, connected to a metal flue pipe and gas piping.

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

    There's no gas line to the unit and no flame anywhere in it. Carbon monoxide isn't part of the picture.

    A kitchen with navy blue shaker cabinets, white upper cabinets, light stone countertops, a glass cooktop with a stainless steel kettle on an island, two wooden stools, a gray tile backsplash, potted greenery, and a window showing trees outside.

  • Steady, even comfort

    A heat pump runs long and low instead of blasting on and off. Rooms hold an even temperature all day.

    A dimly lit living room with a cream armchair holding an open book and a gray throw, a brass floor lamp, built-in bookshelves, a stone fireplace, a snowy window, and a golden retriever sleeping on a patterned rug.

  • 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.

    Living room with a cream sofa holding navy and patterned cushions and a blue throw, a wooden coffee table with a bowl and white flowers, a dark blue bookcase, and a large window with pale blue curtains overlooking a green garden.

Where does a furnace shine?

  • Runs on the gas most homes here already use

    Most homes in Armstrong County already have gas line run to them, so a gas furnace just connects to what's there. No new fuel source to add, no separate setup to plan around.

    A row of wood-sided houses with covered porches and white railings along a sidewalk, with patchy snow on the ground, bare trees, and an exterior gas meter with pipes on a dark stone foundation in the foreground.

  • Fast, strong heat on demand

    The air coming from the vents feels genuinely hot. That's welcome on a freezing morning.

    An entryway with a dark blue door and snowy trees visible through its window, a pair of fur-lined winter boots on a jute rug, a wooden bench with a cushion, blue fringed throw and steaming mug, a wicker basket beneath, coats and a bag on wall hooks, a sheer curtain at right and a floor vent in the slate tile.

  • Proven, simple, easy to get serviced

    Gas furnaces have heated homes for generations. Almost every HVAC tech knows them inside and out.

    A gloved hand holds a white pleated air filter in front of a furnace and wooden shelving holding baskets, bins, a mug and a plant.

Can a heat pump keep up with winter here

Winter here is the real question, because heat runs eight months a year in Armstrong County, October through May, and cooling only covers three. Whatever you buy will spend most of its life heating this house, not cooling it.

The average overnight low across December, January and February is 21°F. That's below the 40°F mark where a standard heat pump starts falling short of its rated output, and below the 35°F mark where it often needs backup heat to make up the difference. About 140 nights a year here drop to freezing or below, and every one of those nights is under both marks.

That doesn't mean a heat pump quits. Most of those 140 cold nights sit between freezing and the teens, not down at 0°F, and only about 5 nights a year reach that mark. A field test of cold-climate heat pumps running in occupied homes over two winters found backup heat carried only a small share of the load between 0°F and 35°F, and the units rarely ran on backup alone unless it was at or below 0°F. If you go with a heat pump, look for one carrying the ENERGY STAR Cold Climate mark. To earn it, a heat pump has to deliver at least 1.75 units of heat per unit of electricity at 5°F and hold onto 70 percent of its 47°F capacity at that temperature, verified by outside testing, not the manufacturer's own numbers.

A standard heat pump built to the federal minimum will lean on backup heat far more than that on a county with 140 freezing nights a year. A cold-climate model closes most of that gap. A gas furnace never has the question in the first place, because its output doesn't depend on how cold it is outside.

A two-story light blue clapboard house with dark blue shutters, a white columned entry, and brick chimneys, flanked by a yellow house and a white picket fence, with plowed snowbanks along a bare road in the foreground under a clear sky.

What it costs to run and what the house is already set up for

Running cost favors the furnace here. At Pennsylvania's average fuel prices, a gas furnace makes 100,000 Btu of heat for $1.64. A heat pump built to the federal minimum makes the same heat for $2.37, and that figure doesn't include whatever the backup heat adds on the coldest nights. A gas furnace costs less to run in this county, not by a small margin.

What's already in the house matters too. Utility gas heats about three in four homes in Armstrong County, 74.2 percent, well above the 51.3 percent statewide. Electric heat covers about one in ten homes here, 10.7 percent, below the state's 25.3 percent. Most houses in this county were built around a gas line already feeding the furnace, which is part of why gas costs what it costs here and electricity costs what it costs.

A heat pump still earns its keep in summer, since it cools the house as well as heats it, where a furnace only heats and has nothing to do the other four months of the year. If central air matters to you, that's a real point in the heat pump's favor. But for a house in Armstrong County where gas is already run, heat is the long season, and the furnace runs it for less, a gas furnace is the one that fits this county's winters and its wallet. A heat pump makes the most sense here for a house with no gas line to begin with, or for an owner who wants one system for both seasons and is willing to pay more to run it and choose a cold-climate model for the nights below freezing.

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 shingled house with white trim, two dormer windows and brick chimneys, surrounded by deep snow banks under a clear sky, with a bare tree at left and a gray-shingled neighboring house at right.

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 for less heat once it gets cold. Below 40°F its output drops under its rating, and below about 35°F it often leans on backup heat, and in Armstrong County the overnight low averages 21°F, with about 140 nights a year at or below freezing. A cold climate model holds up better at low temperatures, but either way the furnace is doing real work on the coldest nights here.

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

    Most homes here need it. The average overnight low in Armstrong County is 21°F, and a standard heat pump starts falling short of its rated heat below 40°F and often needs backup below about 35°F, a mark every one of the roughly 140 freezing nights here falls under. A cold climate heat pump narrows that gap, but on the handful of nights that reach 0°F, backup heat still matters.

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

    Yes, a furnace and a heat pump can share a house, and plenty of systems here are built that way, running the heat pump most of the season and the furnace on the coldest nights. The average overnight low in Armstrong County is 21°F, below the point where a standard heat pump starts losing capacity, so the furnace picks up the slack when it's needed most.

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

    No, a gas furnace runs cheaper here. At Pennsylvania's fuel prices, a furnace makes the same heat for $1.64 per 100,000 Btu against $2.37 for a heat pump, and that heat pump figure doesn't even count the backup heat it needs on the coldest nights. Gas already heats about three in four homes in Armstrong County, so most houses here are set up to run it that way.

A man in a blue shirt kneels in a basement to work on an open furnace with ductwork overhead, beside a black tool bag filled with hand tools.

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