Pennsylvania Heating

Heat pump vs furnace in Pike County, Pennsylvania

Price Both Options

Replacement quotes in Pike County

Which costs less to run in Pike County?

A gray outdoor condenser unit with a top fan grille sits on a concrete pad beside a dark blue horizontal lap-siding wall at night, with conduit running to a small wall-mounted disconnect box.

Heat pump

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

A beige furnace cabinet stands against a dark blue wall on a concrete floor, with a galvanized metal flue pipe rising from its top and white and insulated pipes running down the wall beside it.

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

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

    A cream sofa with blue cushions and a blue fringed throw sits beneath a dark-framed window overlooking a green garden, with a wooden coffee table holding a bowl, mug and books in the foreground and a table lamp and framed landscape painting at left.

  • 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 cabinets and a white stone-topped island holding a black induction cooktop, a light blue kettle, a mug on a wooden board, and white tulips in a pitcher, with cream upper cabinets, two glass pendant lights, and a window above the sink.

  • Steady, even comfort

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

    A golden retriever sleeps curled on a woven jute rug beside a light gray armchair holding a navy pillow, an open book and a blue knit throw, with a table lamp, navy knit pouf, wooden cabinet and curtained window nearby.

Where does a furnace shine?

  • Strong, steady heat in hard cold

    Winter nights here average 18°F, and a furnace holds its output steady no matter how far the temperature drops. You get the same strong heat out of the vents at midnight in January as you do on a mild afternoon.

    A two-story dark blue wood-sided house with white trim, a covered front porch and lit windows at dusk, surrounded by snow-covered shrubs and a shoveled walkway leading to the steps.

  • 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 front of a furnace and wooden shelving holding baskets, bins, a mug and a plant.

  • Pairs with any central AC

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

    Sunlit room corner with a hardwood floor, a metal floor vent near the baseboard, sheer white curtains at a window, a woven basket with a light blue fringed throw beside a dark blue cabinet, and a blue and tan rug in the foreground.

What winter here asks of a heat pump

Pike County heat runs eight months a year, October through May, and the overnight average in December, January and February is 18°F. That number matters because a standard heat pump starts losing ground well before it gets that cold. Below 40°F it already puts out less than its rated capacity. Below about 35°F it usually needs backup heat to keep up. An average winter night here sits under both marks.

Of the roughly 245 nights the heat runs here, about 145 drop to freezing or below, more than half the heating season. Only about 6 nights a year reach 0°F. So the real story of a Pike County winter is not a handful of brutal nights, it is over a hundred ordinary ones spent below the point where a standard heat pump needs help.

This is where the two machines split. A gas furnace burns fuel to make heat, so outdoor temperature does not touch its output. It makes the same heat on the coldest night of the year as it does in October. A heat pump moves heat from the outside air, so as that air gets colder there is less of it to move. That is not a flaw to fix, it is how the machine works.

A plowed residential street lined with snowbanks, with blue and white clapboard houses, brick chimneys, a white picket fence, and bare trees under a clear sky.

What it costs to run, and what to buy instead if electric still makes sense

At Pennsylvania's prices, the furnace wins on running cost too. A gas furnace makes 100,000 Btu of heat for $1.64 against $2.37 for a standard heat pump, at least 30% cheaper, and that heat pump figure has nothing added for the backup heat it is likely to need on those 145 nights. Oil comes in highest at $3.03, so if the real choice in your house is oil furnace against heat pump, the heat pump is actually the cheaper machine to run.

If a heat pump is still the right call for your house, the answer to the cold isn't to work around it, it's to buy a different class of machine. A model with the ENERGY STAR Cold Climate rating has to prove, under third-party testing, that it still makes 1.75 units of heat per unit of electricity at 5°F and holds onto at least 70% of its 47°F capacity at that temperature. A standard heat pump is never tested to do either. In field tests of cold-climate models in occupied homes, backup heat covered only a small share of what was needed between 0°F and 35°F, and running on backup alone was rare even above 0°F.

So the choice comes down to what the house already has and what matters more. A furnace, gas or paired with a heat pump for summer, is the cheaper and steadier way to heat through a Pike County winter. A heat pump can do the job too, and it covers the air conditioning a furnace never will, but it should carry the Cold Climate rating built for nights like the 145 this county gets every year.

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

Snow-covered stone steps lead to a blue storm door on a blue clapboard house, with a stacked woodpile, a snowy stone wall, and bare shrubs nearby.

Common questions about heat pumps and furnaces

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

    Yes, but check what it's rated to do below freezing before you count on it alone. Your overnight low here averages 18°F in December, January and February, and a standard heat pump's output falls short of its rating below 40°F and often needs backup heat below about 35°F. Over half the nights in your 8-month heating season, about 145 of them, fall at or below freezing. A cold-climate model, the kind rated to hold most of its capacity at 5°F, handles that stretch with much less help from backup heat.

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

    Most likely, yes, unless you choose a cold-climate heat pump built to carry the cold here on its own. A standard heat pump's heating efficiency drops below about 35°F, and your average winter night, 18°F, is well past that mark. About 6 nights a year here drop to 0°F or below, which is the kind of cold where backup heat matters most. A heat pump carrying the ENERGY STAR Cold Climate rating keeps most of its capacity at 5°F and needs backup far less often.

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

    Your choice without a gas line is a heat pump, electric resistance heat, or a furnace burning propane or oil. Propane and oil cost more to run than a heat pump here, $28.79 and $25.15 per million Btu against electricity at $52.07, but a heat pump turns that electricity into more heat per dollar. Figured the same way as the furnace above, an oil furnace runs $3.03 per 100,000 Btu against $2.37 for a heat pump, so the heat pump comes out cheaper. Electric resistance heat has no such advantage, since it turns a unit of electricity into a unit of heat and nothing more.

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

    No, a gas furnace costs less to run here. A furnace makes 100,000 Btu of heat for $1.64 at Pennsylvania's gas prices, a heat pump for $2.37 at the same method, both built to the federal minimum. Gas is the cheaper fuel per Btu in this state, and that holds even though the heat pump moves heat rather than burning fuel to make it.

A person in a light blue shirt reaches up to adjust a white wall-mounted thermostat with a dial, with a light switch plate below and a living room with sofa and window in the background, and an open tool bag at lower left.

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