Pennsylvania Heating

Heat pump vs furnace in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

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Which costs less to run in Lancaster County?

An outdoor air conditioning condenser unit on a concrete pad against a dark horizontal-sided wall at night, lit by a wall light, with conduit and an electrical disconnect box to the right and gravel and plants around the pad.

Heat pump

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

A beige gas furnace with two access panels stands on a concrete floor against a dark blue wall, with a metal flue pipe and plenum above and pipes and wiring to its 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?

  • Heats and cools in one system

    One machine handles the heat in winter and the cooling in summer. There's no second system to buy or keep up.

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  • Steady, even comfort

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

    A golden retriever sleeps on a woven rug in a living room with a navy armchair holding an open book and gray throw, a lit fireplace, a wooden sideboard with a lamp, and a window showing snow outside.

  • No gas line, nothing burning in the house

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

    A kitchen with navy blue cabinets, white countertop, white subway tile backsplash, a stainless steel range hood above a black induction cooktop with a metal kettle, plus mugs, a utensil crock, a cutting board and a potted plant.

Where does a furnace shine?

  • Pairs with any central AC

    Most central air systems are built around a furnace. The two share the blower, the ducts and the thermostat.

    A rectangular floor vent set into light wood flooring near a glass door with a white sheer curtain, beside a blue dresser and a potted plant.

  • Fast, strong heat on demand

    A furnace pushes out hot air within minutes of switching on. A cold house warms up fast.

    An entryway with a wooden door and sheer curtain over its window, a floor vent emitting visible steam, snow-covered boots and a hanging coat at left, and a wooden bench with a dark blue mug and knit throw at right over a jute rug on stone flooring.

  • Proven, simple, easy to get serviced

    The design is simple and well understood. That keeps service calls short.

    A gloved hand holds a white pleated air filter in a basement utility area with a furnace, ductwork, and shelving holding storage bins and towels.

What winter here does to a heat pump

Your furnace, whatever you end up with, is going to run seven months a year here, October through April. That is the longer of your two seasons by a wide margin, cooling only takes June through August. So this decision is mostly a heating decision.

A standard heat pump starts losing ground below 40°F and often needs backup heat below about 35°F. The average overnight low here in December, January and February is 24°F. That is not an occasional dip below those marks, it is the season sitting below both of them. About 110 nights a year here hit freezing or below, roughly half the nights across the whole heating season, and every one of those nights is cold enough to pull a standard heat pump below both marks.

That does not mean the heat pump stops working. It means it leans on backup heat, usually electric resistance, on a lot of the coldest nights of your year. A field test of cold-climate heat pumps found backup heat carried only a small share of the load between 0°F and 35°F, and running on backup alone was rare even above 0°F. Lancaster County sees about one night a year that cold, so the deep cold isn't the issue here. The issue is the 110 nights at or below freezing, which is where a standard heat pump's output and efficiency are already down from their rating.

If you want a heat pump to carry your house through a winter like this one without leaning hard on backup heat, look for the ENERGY STAR Cold Climate listing. That designation requires at least 1.75 units of heat per unit of electricity at 5°F, verified by outside testing, which is a different machine than one built to the federal minimum.

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What it costs to run, and what that means for your choice

At Pennsylvania's prices, a gas furnace built to the federal minimum makes 100,000 Btu of heat for $1.64. A heat pump built to the same minimum makes that heat for $2.37. An oil furnace runs $3.03. Gas is the cheapest of the three here, oil is the most expensive, and the heat pump sits in between.

The heat pump's number assumes it is doing the work on electricity alone, with nothing added for the backup heat it is likely running on a good share of those 110 freezing nights. Backup heat here is typically electric resistance, which costs more per Btu than the heat pump itself. So $2.37 is closer to a best case for that machine in this county than an average one.

If you already have a gas line and your furnace is original to the house or old enough to be due, a new gas furnace heats this house for less, both on the sticker efficiency and in the cold it actually has to work through. If you don't have gas, or you're weighing a heat pump for the summer cooling it gives you along with winter heat, a Cold Climate rated unit is the one built for a winter like this one, not the standard model the $2.37 figure describes. Either way, the number to ask a contractor about is the heating capacity and efficiency at the temperatures this county actually sees, not just the rating at 47°F.

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

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Common questions about heat pumps and furnaces

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

    Yes, it can, though a standard heat pump loses capacity as it gets colder and often needs backup heat once it drops below about 35°F outside. The overnight low here averages 24°F across December, January and February, and falls to 32°F or below on about 110 nights a year, so backup heat matters for a real share of the winter. A heat pump built to the Cold Climate standard is tested to hold most of its capacity down to 5°F, which covers all but about one night a year here.

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

    Yes, and in a house without ductwork changes this is usually called a dual fuel setup. The heat pump carries the house most days, since heat pump weather here is mild more nights than not, and the furnace takes over when it gets cold enough that the heat pump needs backup anyway. A contractor can set the switchover point, often somewhere near where a standard heat pump starts losing capacity, around 35 to 40°F.

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

    Then the real choice is between a heat pump and a furnace burning oil or propane, since electric resistance heat costs the most to run of the three. An oil furnace built to the federal minimum makes 100,000 Btu of heat for $3.03 here, against $2.37 for a heat pump figured the same way. So where gas isn't an option, the heat pump is the cheaper of the two to run.

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

    No, a gas furnace costs less to run here. Figured at Pennsylvania's average fuel prices, a furnace makes 100,000 Btu of heat for $1.64 against $2.37 for a heat pump built to the federal minimum. That is gas at $13.12 per million Btu burned at 80 percent efficiency, against electricity at $52.07 per million Btu.

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