Pennsylvania Heating

Heat pump vs furnace in Fayette County, Pennsylvania

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Replacement quotes in Fayette County

Which costs less to run in Fayette County?

A gray outdoor air conditioning condenser unit with a top-mounted fan grille sits on a concrete pad beside a dark blue horizontal lap-siding wall, with an electrical disconnect box and conduit on the wall above it, lit at night.

Heat pump

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

A beige metal furnace with two access panels stands on a concrete floor against a dark blue painted brick wall, with a metal flue pipe and a gas line running up from 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

    There's no gas line to the unit and no flame anywhere in it. Carbon monoxide isn't part of the picture.

    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.

  • 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 navy armchair holding an open book, a lit table lamp, a window with blue curtains, potted plants, a storage console with wicker baskets, and a light-colored dog sleeping on a patterned rug.

  • 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 living room with a beige sofa holding navy, blue and striped cushions and a grey fringed throw, a wooden coffee table with books and a mug, a vase of white flowers, and a large dark-framed window looking onto a green garden with trees and a wooden fence.

Where does a furnace shine?

  • Proven, simple, easy to get serviced

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

    A gloved hand holds a large white pleated air filter in front of a dark furnace, beside wooden shelves holding a storage bin, folded clothes, and a wicker basket.

  • 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 sheer white curtain hangs beside a sunlit window over a metal floor vent in a wood floor, with a blue chest of drawers, a woven basket, and a blue fringed rug nearby.

  • 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.

    A mudroom with a navy door with a window showing snow outside, snow-dusted fur-lined boots on a stone tile floor, a patterned rug, and a light blue bench with wood top holding a steaming mug and woven storage baskets, with coats hanging above.

What winter here does to a heat pump

Your furnace or heat pump runs about eight months a year here, October through May, longer than almost anything else in the house. That is the real test, not the three summer months. The overnight low averages 22°F across December, January and February, and it drops to freezing or below on about 130 nights a year. That is more than half the nights in the heating season.

A standard heat pump starts losing ground before it gets anywhere near that cold. Below 40°F it already puts out less heat than its rating says. Below about 35°F it often needs backup heat to keep up. Fayette County's average winter night is 22°F, under both marks, and every one of those 130 freezing nights is too. This is not a once-a-winter event here. It is most of the season.

That does not rule a heat pump out. Cold climate models carry an ENERGY STAR rating that requires them to hold at least 1.75 units of heat per unit of electricity at 5°F, and keep at least 70 percent of their 47°F capacity at that temperature, checked by outside testing. Field tests of that kind of equipment 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. A standard heat pump sized for this county's federal minimum will lean on backup heat all winter. A cold climate one mostly will not.

A two-story navy blue clapboard house with white trim, blue shutters, two brick chimneys and a columned front porch, surrounded by deep snow and bare trees under a partly cloudy sky.

What it costs to run

Run the two machines at Pennsylvania's own prices and the furnace wins on the gas bill. A gas furnace makes 100,000 Btu of heat for $1.64. A heat pump at the federal minimum makes the same heat for $2.37, without counting anything for backup heat on the cold nights above. An oil furnace runs $3.03 for the same heat, so if your house is on oil now, a heat pump already costs less to run than what you have.

Gas is the fuel to beat here, and it already heats 44 percent of homes in the county, more than any other fuel. If your house has a gas line, a furnace is both the cheaper machine to run and the one your neighbors are already using. If it does not, the choice is between electric and oil, and there the heat pump is the better number.

None of this touches summer. A furnace only heats; it has no part in the three months, June through August, when your house needs cooling. A heat pump does both from the same system. If your ductwork is already set up for central air, that is worth weighing against the running cost, especially for a household on oil deciding what to replace it with.

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 dark blue clapboard house with white trim, a brick chimney and a light blue front door with a wreath, behind snow-covered ground and a bare tree, with white neighboring houses and a cleared road in the foreground.

Common questions about heat pumps and furnaces

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

    Most likely, yes. A standard heat pump's heating efficiency drops once it's below about 35°F outside, and its heat output falls short of its rating below 40°F. The average overnight low here is 22°F, and it falls to freezing or below on about 130 nights a year, so a standard heat pump will need backup heat on a lot of those nights. A cold-climate heat pump holds up better in the cold, but check what your installer is quoting before you assume it needs no backup at all.

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

    Yes, that's a dual fuel setup, and it suits this county well. The heat pump carries the heating load most of the year, and the furnace takes over when it gets cold enough that the heat pump stops being the cheaper option. With an average winter low of 22°F here, and about 130 nights a year at or below freezing, there are plenty of nights where that handoff matters.

  • What if my house heats with oil or propane?

    If your house heats with oil, a heat pump beats it on running cost. Oil runs $3.03 per 100,000 Btu of heat at Pennsylvania's prices, the most expensive of the three. A gas furnace comes in under both, at $1.64, if a gas line is an option at your house.

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

    No, a gas furnace costs less to run here. A gas furnace makes 100,000 Btu of heat for $1.64 at Pennsylvania's prices, against $2.37 for a heat pump built to the federal minimum. That gap holds across the whole heating season, not just the coldest nights.

A man in a blue shirt and cap kneels on a concrete floor working on a gray furnace unit with ductwork and PVC piping in an unfinished basement, with an open tool bag beside him.

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