Pennsylvania Heating

Heat pump vs furnace in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania

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Heat pump or furnace, one form

Which costs less to run in Philadelphia County?

An outdoor air conditioner condenser unit with a top-mounted fan grille sits on a concrete pad next to dark horizontal siding, with mulch around it and a disconnect box and refrigerant lines on the wall.

Heat pump

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

A beige furnace with a metal flue pipe stands against a dark blue painted basement wall on a concrete floor, with pipes running up 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?

  • No gas line, nothing burning in the house

    It moves heat instead of making it from fire. That means no combustion, no flue and no gas bill for heat.

    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

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

    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

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

    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 Philadelphia County already have a gas line, since utility gas heats 69.6% of them. A new furnace can run off that same line, no new fuel setup needed.

    A row of brick houses with covered porches, concrete front steps and metal handrails along a snow-covered residential street with bare trees and a cleared sidewalk.

  • 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 clean pleated air filter in front of a furnace, with shelving holding a mug, basket, and toolbox to the right.

  • 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.

    An entryway with a dark blue door, snow-dusted winter boots on a blue rug, a floor vent, a pale blue sheer curtain billowing, a bench with a cushion and mug, and a woven basket holding a gray blanket.

What winter here actually asks of a heat pump

Your furnace or heat pump runs about seven months a year here, October through April, so this choice is mostly a winter question. The average overnight low across December, January and February is 27°F, and that's below both marks that matter for a heat pump. Below 40°F a standard one puts out less heat than its rating says. Below about 35°F it often needs backup heat to make up the difference. At 27°F, a typical winter night here is already past both marks.

It doesn't get dangerously cold often, though. The overnight low drops to freezing or below on about 80 nights a year, under half the nights in heating season, and only a small part of those nights reach 0°F. An ENERGY STAR Cold Climate heat pump is tested to hold at least 70 percent of its heating capacity at 5°F, colder than almost anything this county sees. Field testing of these cold-climate models found backup heat covered only a small share of the load between 0°F and 35°F, and the unit running on backup alone was rare even above 0°F. A standard heat pump will lean on backup heat most winter nights here. A cold-climate one mostly won't.

A dark blue clapboard house with black shutters and a white door surround stands behind a white picket fence with blooming purple lilacs, beside a brick sidewalk lined with pale blue and cream houses and flowering trees.

What it costs to run, and what's already in the house

A gas furnace is cheaper to run here. At Pennsylvania's average fuel prices, a furnace built to the federal minimum makes the same heat for $1.64 per 100,000 Btu against $2.37 for a heat pump at its federal minimum, with nothing added for backup heat on the coldest nights. That gap lines up with what's already in most houses here: 69.6% heat with utility gas, a little over two in three, against 24.7% on electricity. If your house already has a gas line and a gas furnace, putting in another furnace means working with a system a contractor already knows. Switching to a heat pump means retiring a working fuel source and possibly changing the ductwork or wiring to suit it.

The one place a heat pump pulls ahead is summer, and summer is short here. Cooling runs about four months, June through September, and the afternoon only reaches 90°F or higher on about 35 days a year. A heat pump heats and cools with one system. A furnace only heats, which is why a house with one still needs a separate air conditioner for those four months. If the comparison is a heat pump against a furnace plus a new AC, the heat pump's summer side counts for something. If the AC already works and only the heating system is being replaced, that part of the argument doesn't apply.

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

A brick sidewalk runs past white picket fences and clapboard houses in navy, pale blue, and white, with blooming lilac bushes and a flowering white tree overhead.

Common questions about heat pumps and furnaces

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

    It can, but a standard heat pump struggles on the coldest nights here. Below about 40°F its heat output falls short of its rating, and below about 35°F it often needs backup heat, and the average overnight low across December, January and February is 27°F. A cold-climate model changes this some: to earn that label it has to keep at least 70 percent of its 47°F heating capacity down at 5°F, and field testing in occupied homes found backup heat supplied only a small share of the total between 0°F and 35°F.

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

    With a standard heat pump, yes. Its heating efficiency drops once outside temperatures fall below about 35°F, and that happens on roughly 80 nights a year here. A cold-climate heat pump needs it less: it is tested to hold most of its heating capacity down to 5°F, and backup heat only rarely carries the whole load even on the coldest nights in field tests.

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

    Yes, and in Philadelphia County that often means the furnace covers the coldest nights while the heat pump handles the rest. The average overnight low here runs 27°F across December, January and February, below the point where a standard heat pump's output starts falling short of its rating. Paired this way, the furnace kicks in on the roughly 80 nights a year that drop to freezing or below, and the heat pump carries the milder stretches on either side.

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

    No, a furnace costs less to run here. At Pennsylvania's fuel prices, a gas furnace makes the same heat for $1.64 per 100,000 Btu against $2.37 for a heat pump built to the federal minimum. Gas already heats a little over two in three homes in the county, so most houses here have the gas line a furnace needs.

A person in a light blue shirt reaches up to adjust a round black wall thermostat beside a light switch, with an open tool bag on the floor and a living room with sofa and fireplace in the background.

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