Pennsylvania Heating

Heat pump vs furnace in Bradford County, Pennsylvania

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Which costs less to run in Bradford County?

An outdoor condenser unit on a concrete pad against dark blue horizontal lap siding at night, lit from above, with a disconnect box and conduit on the wall behind it.

Heat pump

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

A beige sheet-metal furnace with a vented upper panel and metal flue pipe stands on a concrete floor against a dark blue wall, with gas piping and flexible conduit running along its left side.

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.

    Kitchen with a navy blue island topped by light stone counter holding an induction cooktop and stainless kettle, with white upper cabinets, wall oven, stainless refrigerator, glass pendant lights and a window with greenery outside.

  • Heats and cools in one system

    Winter and summer are covered by the same outdoor unit. That's one machine to service instead of two.

    A living room with blue interior shutters framing a window overlooking a green garden, a cream sofa with blue cushions and a blue knitted throw, a wicker trunk, and a wooden coffee table holding a vase of white flowers, a blue mug, and stacked books.

  • 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 at dusk with a navy armchair holding an open book, pillow and gray throw, a yellow dog sleeping on a patterned rug, a lit floor lamp and side table with a mug, and frost-edged windows showing evergreen trees outside.

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. It doesn't have to work harder as it gets colder outside, it just keeps running the same way all night.

    A two-story dark blue house with snow-covered roof and lit windows at dusk, with a shoveled path lined by small lamps leading to the front porch steps, surrounded by snow banks and conifer trees.

  • Proven, simple, easy to get serviced

    Parts are easy to find and most repairs are routine. Getting one fixed rarely means waiting on a specialist.

    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.

  • Pairs with any central AC

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

    A metal floor vent set in a wood floor near a baseboard and window with a sheer white curtain, with a wooden table holding books and a blue mug on the left and a blue sofa with a fringed throw on the right.

What cold does to a heat pump here

Heat runs nine months a year here, September through May, and the overnight low averages 19°F across December, January and February. That is below the point where a standard heat pump starts to struggle. Below 40°F a standard heat pump puts out less heat than its rating. Below about 35°F it often needs backup heat to make up the difference. About 150 nights a year here drop to freezing or below, and every one of those nights is colder than both marks.

That does not mean the heat pump stops working. It means it leans on backup heat for a real part of the winter, and backup heat is usually electric resistance, the most expensive way to make heat there is. The running-cost figure on this page, $2.37 per 100,000 Btu, does not include that backup heat. It is the cost if the heat pump covered the whole job on the federal minimum rating alone, which on a winter this cold, it will not always do.

A heat pump built to the ENERGY STAR Cold Climate spec is a different machine. To earn that label it has to deliver at least 1.75 units of heat for every unit of electricity at 5°F, and hold onto 70 percent of its 47°F capacity at that temperature, checked by outside testing. In a two-winter field test of prototype cold-climate heat pumps in occupied homes, backup heat covered only a small share of the heat between 0°F and 35°F, and the machines rarely ran on backup heat alone above 0°F. Bradford County sees about 8 nights a year that cold, a small share of the roughly 150 nights at or below freezing.

A navy blue clapboard house with white trim, a light blue front door and a brick chimney stands beside other white houses along a plowed street banked with snow under a clear sky.

What it costs to run, and what your house already has

On running cost alone, gas wins. $1.64 per 100,000 Btu for a gas furnace against $2.37 for a standard heat pump, both built to the federal minimum. An oil furnace runs behind both at $3.03. That order, gas cheapest, then heat pump, then oil, holds at Pennsylvania's prices regardless of how cold the winter gets.

A cold-climate heat pump closes some of that gap by doing more of the work on electricity alone even in single digits, but it still costs more to run than gas at this county's prices. What it adds instead is a second season of use. A furnace only heats, so for the three months a year the heat is not running here, it has nothing to do. A heat pump works both sides of the year.

Just under two in five homes here already heat with utility gas. If yours is one of them, a furnace is the simpler, cheaper machine to run and it pairs with whatever central air is already in place. About one in five homes here run on fuel oil and about one in ten on propane, and for those houses the comparison looks different: oil costs more to run than either gas or a heat pump, so it is worth weighing the cost of bringing in a gas line against installing a heat pump instead. What your house is already set up for matters more here than any climate number.

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 · Census ACS 2020–2024

A two-story navy blue clapboard house with white trim, a light blue front door, and a brick chimney, surrounded by deep snow, bare trees, and a stone retaining wall with stone steps leading up to the entry.

Common questions about heat pumps and furnaces

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

    A standard heat pump can, but it won't do it alone here. Below about 35°F it typically needs backup heat, and the overnight low falls to 32°F or below on about 150 nights a year in Bradford County. An ENERGY STAR Cold Climate model is built to keep most of its capacity down to 5°F, so the answer depends on which heat pump you mean.

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

    For a standard heat pump, yes. The overnight low here averages 19°F in winter, well past the 40°F point where a standard unit's output starts falling short and the 35°F point where it often leans on backup heat. A cold climate model is tested to hold most of its capacity at 5°F, which is closer to what Bradford County winters actually ask of it.

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

    Yes, and in Bradford County it solves the heat pump's weak spot. A standard heat pump's output falls below its rating once it's under 40°F outside, and the overnight low here averages 19°F across December, January and February. The furnace carries the house on the cold nights, the heat pump runs the rest of the time.

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

    No, a gas furnace runs cheaper here. A furnace built to the federal minimum makes 100,000 Btu of heat for $1.64 at Pennsylvania's gas prices, against $2.37 for a heat pump at the same minimum. That gap is Pennsylvania's fuel prices, not a flaw in either machine, and it holds before you add anything for backup heat on the coldest nights.

A person in a blue uniform and gray gloves works on the pipe connections of a gray outdoor condenser unit mounted on a concrete pad beside a blue clapboard wall, with a drill and wrench lying on mulch in the foreground.

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