Pennsylvania Heating

Heat pump vs furnace in Washington County, Pennsylvania

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Heat pump or furnace, one form

Which costs less to run in Washington County?

An outdoor air conditioner condenser unit with a top-mounted fan sits on a concrete pad beside a dark blue lap-sided wall at night, with refrigerant lines and conduit running to the wall.

Heat pump

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

A beige upflow furnace stands against a blue-painted concrete block basement wall, with galvanized sheet-metal ductwork, a flue pipe, white PVC piping and a flexible metal conduit above it, lit by a bare hanging bulb.

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

    A heat pump runs on electricity alone. Nothing burns inside the house.

    A kitchen island with navy cabinets and a light stone countertop holding a stainless steel kettle on a black cooktop, with a white subway tile backsplash, stainless range hood, cream upper cabinets, a vase of eucalyptus, a bowl of green apples, a crock of wooden utensils, and a person seated at a table near windows in the background.

  • Steady, even comfort

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

    A living room at dusk with a navy armchair holding an open book and a gray throw, a beige sofa with plaid and navy pillows, a lit table lamp by a window showing bare trees and snow, a golden retriever lying on a patterned rug, a wooden coffee table with a mug, a stone fireplace surround and a lantern candle.

  • 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 cream sofa, blue pillows and a fringed blue throw beside a large blue-framed window looking onto a green garden, with a stone fireplace, wooden coffee table holding apples, a mug and white hydrangeas, and blue built-in shelves.

Where does a furnace shine?

  • Runs on the gas most homes here already use

    Most homes in Washington County already run on utility gas for heat. If yours is one of them, a furnace ties into a line that's already there instead of asking the house to work off something new.

    A row of wood-sided houses with covered front porches and white railings along a snow-covered yard and sidewalk in low sunlight.

  • Fast, strong heat on demand

    A furnace pushes out hot air within minutes of switching on. A cold house warms up fast.

    A mudroom with a navy cushioned bench holding a cream throw, woven storage baskets beneath, a steaming mug, coats and a plaid scarf on hooks, and snowy boots on a gray mat beside a dark blue door with a sheer curtain and a snow-covered view outside.

  • Pairs with any central AC

    A furnace's blower and ducts carry cooled air too. Adding central AC uses the same system.

    A metal floor vent set in oak flooring beside a sheer white curtain and a dark blue cabinet, with sunlight casting shadows across the floor.

What winter here does to a heat pump

Washington County heat runs eight months a year, October through May, and the overnight low in December, January and February averages 23°F. That number matters because a standard heat pump starts losing ground below 40°F and often needs backup heat below about 35°F. Here, the average winter night is already past both marks. About 120 nights a year here drop to freezing or below, roughly half the nights across the whole heating season, and every one of those nights falls below the point where a standard heat pump is working at a disadvantage.

That does not mean the heat pump stops. Cold climate models, the ones carrying the ENERGY STAR Cold Climate label, are tested to hold at least 70 percent of their rated output at 5°F and still produce 1.75 units of heat per unit of electricity at that temperature. A two winter field study of prototype cold climate heat pumps in occupied homes found backup heat covered only a small share of the heat used between 0°F and 35°F, and the system running on backup alone was rare even above 0°F. That's the range this county lives in most winter nights. Only about 2 nights a year here reach 0°F, so the hardest cold is rare, even if cold itself is not.

A snowy residential street lined with clapboard houses, including a dark navy house with brick chimneys, under a clear blue sky with bare trees.

What it costs to run, and what to weigh against that

At Pennsylvania's average fuel prices, a gas furnace makes the same heat for less: $1.64 per 100,000 Btu against $2.37 for a heat pump, both built to the federal minimum. That gap is the clearest number in this decision, and it favors the furnace. Two in three homes in this county already heat with utility gas, against about one in five on electric heat, so for most houses here a furnace means using a fuel line already run to the house.

A furnace only heats. It has nothing to do for the four months a year this county runs cooling, so a furnace means a separate air conditioner. A heat pump heats and cools with one system, and runs on electricity alone, with nothing burning inside the house. Where the choice lands depends on what the house is set up for: a home with gas already piped in and a working AC has less reason to change either one, while a home without gas, or one already facing an AC replacement, gets more out of a heat pump covering both jobs even at the higher running cost.

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 white trim, a white chimney, a light blue front door with a wreath, and a snow-covered roof, behind a snowy yard with a stone retaining wall and bare trees.

Common questions about heat pumps and furnaces

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

    Yes, but a standard one loses capacity doing it. Below 40°F a conventional heat pump puts out less than its rated heat, and below about 35°F it often needs backup. The overnight low here falls to 32°F or below on about 120 nights a year, roughly half the nights the heat even runs, so that drop in output isn't a rare event here, it's most of the season. A cold-climate model, tested to hold at least 70 percent of its capacity at 5°F, handles that stretch with less help.

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

    Most likely, yes. The average overnight low here, 23°F, sits below the roughly 35°F mark where a standard heat pump's efficiency drops and often calls for backup. About 120 nights a year here fall at or below freezing, and all of them are below that mark. A cold-climate heat pump needs less of it. Field testing of cold-climate models found backup heat supplied only a small share of the heat between 0°F and 35°F, and running on backup alone was rare above 0°F, which here happens on about 2 nights a year.

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

    Yes, and in Washington County it covers the nights a heat pump struggles most. Below about 35°F a standard heat pump often needs backup heat, and the overnight low here averages 23°F across December, January and February. A furnace already in the house can serve as that backup instead of an electric element, and it keeps working the way it always has on the coldest nights.

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

    No. A gas furnace runs $1.64 per 100,000 Btu here against $2.37 for a heat pump, so the furnace costs less to make the same heat. That gap is Pennsylvania's gas and electricity prices working against the heat pump, not a sign anything is wrong with it, and it holds even before adding what backup heat costs on the coldest nights.

A man in a blue shirt and cap kneels in a basement, working on a furnace with attached ductwork and white PVC vent pipes, with an open tool bag on the floor beside him and a water heater in the background.

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