Pennsylvania Heating

Heat pump vs furnace in Carbon County, Pennsylvania

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Pros who install both

Which costs less to run in Carbon County?

An outdoor air conditioning condenser unit on a concrete pad beside a dark blue horizontal-lap sided wall, lit at night with an electrical disconnect box and conduit on the wall behind it.

Heat pump

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

A beige gas furnace with metal flue pipe and ductwork stands on a concrete floor against a dark blue basement wall.

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?

  • Steady, even comfort

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

    A navy armchair with a gray throw blanket and open book sits by a multi-pane window at night, beside a wooden side table with a lit lamp, mug and potted plant, while a golden-colored dog sleeps on a patterned rug near a stone fireplace.

  • 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, white marble countertops, a white subway tile backsplash, a stainless steel kettle on an induction cooktop beneath a stainless range hood, a wooden open shelf holding bowls and a trailing plant, and a light blue mug and bowl of apples in the foreground.

  • 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 and striped cushions and a blue knit throw sits beneath a multi-pane window with pale blue interior shutters overlooking a garden, with a rustic wood coffee table, potted plant, and dark blue panelled door nearby.

Where does a furnace shine?

  • Strong, steady heat in hard cold

    Winter nights here average 19°F, and a furnace keeps putting out hot air at that temperature without losing capacity. You get the same blast of heat at the register whether it's December or the coldest night in February.

    A dark blue gabled house with lit windows and a covered porch at dusk, surrounded by deep snow with a shoveled path leading to the front steps and bare trees behind.

  • 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 glass-paned door showing snow outside, snow-dusted boots on herringbone wood floor, a wooden bench with blue throw and steaming mug, hanging coats, a sheer white curtain, and a floor air vent.

  • Pairs with any central AC

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

    A linear metal floor vent set in a wood plank floor near an open blue door, with a sheer white curtain, a woven basket holding a plant, and a woven rug.

Your winters are the whole question

Carbon County heat runs eight months a year, October through May. That is the long season here, not the two months of cooling in summer. Whatever you install is going to spend most of its working life making heat, so it has to be good at that first.

The overnight low here averages 19°F across December, January and February. That is below both marks that matter for a standard heat pump. Below 40°F, a standard heat pump's output falls short of its rating. Below about 35°F, it often needs backup heat to make up the difference. At 19°F average, you are past both marks most winter nights, not just on the cold snaps.

About 140 nights a year here drop to freezing or below, more than half the nights across an eight-month heating season. On a standard heat pump, every one of those nights is below the 35°F and 40°F marks. That is not an occasional backup situation, it is most of the season.

The deep cold is rarer. Only about 5 nights a year reach 0°F or below. That matters because it tells you what kind of heat pump could work here. A cold climate model, the kind certified under ENERGY STAR's Cold Climate rating, has to deliver at least 70 percent of its 47°F capacity and a heating ratio of at least 1.75 at 5°F, tested by a third party. A standard heat pump carries no such guarantee at that temperature. If you are going with a heat pump in Carbon County, this is the spec that decides whether it keeps up.

A dark blue entry door with a frosted glass panel in a blue shingled house with white trim, with snow on the roof and steps, a stacked woodpile at left, and a stone wall at right.

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

At Pennsylvania's 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 here, by a wide enough margin that it is worth knowing before you decide. An oil furnace runs dearer than both, at $3.03.

That heat pump number assumes the federal minimum efficiency and adds nothing for backup heat on the cold nights. A field test of prototype 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. So a cold-climate heat pump likely holds close to that $2.37 figure through most of the season. A standard heat pump, leaning on backup heat through 140 nights of freezing cold, will run higher than that number suggests.

Only about one in ten homes here heat with utility gas, against roughly two in five on fuel oil and about one in three on electricity. If your house already has a gas line run to it, a furnace is a straightforward swap and the cheapest to run of the three. If it does not, bringing gas to the house is a separate cost this comparison does not cover, and it changes the math.

If your house heats with oil now, a heat pump costs less to run than the oil furnace it would replace, $2.37 against $3.03. That is the case where switching makes sense on running cost alone. If your house heats with electric resistance now, a heat pump almost always costs less to run than what it replaces, though that comparison is not in the figures above.

A furnace only heats. It has nothing to do in the four months a year when the heat is off here. A heat pump runs the air conditioning too, in the same system, for the two months of summer. That is worth something if your current AC is old or if you would rather not maintain two separate systems.

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

A two-story navy blue clapboard house with a snow-covered roof, brick chimney and white picket fence, flanked by light blue and gray houses, with plowed snowbanks along a wet asphalt street.

Common questions about heat pumps and furnaces

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

    Yes, but a standard heat pump loses capacity doing it. Below 40°F it puts out less than its rated heat, and the average winter low here is 19°F, with about 5 nights a year at 0°F or below. A heat pump carrying the ENERGY STAR Cold Climate mark is built to hold at least 70 percent of its rated heat down to 5°F, which matters more here than the standard rating does.

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

    Most likely yes. A standard heat pump's heating efficiency drops below about 35°F outside, and over half the nights here, about 140 a year, fall at or below freezing. The average overnight low across December, January and February here is 19°F, well past that mark, so backup heat matters most of the winter, not just on the rare cold night.

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

    Without a gas line, your real choice is a heat pump or an oil furnace, and the heat pump costs less to run: $2.37 against $3.03 per 100,000 Btu of heat. It also cools your house in summer, which an oil furnace can't do. Electric resistance heat has no multiplier on the electricity it uses, unlike a heat pump, so it costs more to run than either.

  • What if my house heats with oil or propane?

    An oil furnace built to federal minimum efficiency costs more to run here than a heat pump, $3.03 against $2.37 per 100,000 Btu, because oil runs $25.15 per million Btu against electricity at $52.07 but a heat pump moves more heat per dollar of fuel. Two in five homes in Carbon County heat with oil, so this is worth checking against a heat pump before you replace an oil system with another one. A propane furnace isn't in the facts here, so get a quote on your actual propane price before deciding.

A man in a blue shirt, navy pants and cap works on sheet metal ductwork above a gray furnace in a basement, with an open tool bag on the floor and stairs to the left.

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