Pennsylvania Heating

Heat pump vs furnace in York County, Pennsylvania

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Which costs less to run in York County?

A gray outdoor condenser unit with a top-mounted fan grille sits on a concrete pad beside a dark horizontal-sided wall with PVC pipes and an electrical box, lit at night.

Heat pump

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

A light gray gas furnace with louvered access panels stands on a concrete basement floor beside a dark blue painted block wall, with galvanized metal flue pipes and ductwork rising above it and copper and PVC piping along its right 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?

  • 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, blue throw blanket and cushion, a wooden coffee table holding a vase of white flowers, a bowl and a mug, dark blue built-in shelving at left, and a white-framed window showing green trees and shrubs.

  • Steady, even comfort

    Instead of short bursts of heat, it keeps a gentle, steady output going. The house stays at one comfortable temperature.

    A living room at dusk with a lit wood stove in a dark fireplace surround, a navy armchair with a blue throw and open book, a window seat with cushions, a lit floor lamp, and a tan dog sleeping on a cream shag rug.

  • No gas line, nothing burning in the house

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

    A kitchen with navy blue cabinets, white subway tile backsplash and a light countertop island holding a pale blue stovetop kettle on a black induction cooktop, with a potted plant, salt and pepper mills on a tray, and a window with a blue shade in the background.

Where does a furnace shine?

  • Runs on the gas most homes here already use

    Just over half the homes in York County already heat with gas, so the line running to your street is probably already there. A gas furnace uses that same hookup, nothing new to bring in.

    A snow-covered residential street with wood-sided houses, a white-railed front staircase and exterior gas meter in the foreground, bare trees overhead, and a person walking along a cleared sidewalk in the distance.

  • 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 dark metal floor vent set in hardwood flooring near a window with a billowing sheer white curtain, beside a blue wall, wooden cabinet with a potted plant, woven basket, and a patterned rug.

  • 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 pleated white air filter in front of a furnace, beside wooden shelves holding a storage bin, mug, folded towels and a basket.

Your winter is the real question

Heat runs eight months a year here, October through May. That is the season that decides this, not the three months of summer. The overnight low averages 24°F across December, January and February, and about 120 nights a year dip to freezing or below, roughly half the nights in that eight month stretch.

A standard heat pump starts falling short of its rated heat output once it's below 40°F outside, and below about 35°F it often needs backup heat to keep up. Your average winter night here, 24°F, is below both marks. So is every single one of those 120 freezing nights. That is not an occasional cold snap. That is most of a York County winter.

This does not rule out a heat pump. It means the heat pump you'd put in this house has to be the kind built for it, and the furnace behind it, if there is one, has real work to do most winter nights.

The other number worth knowing: nights at 0°F or below are rare here, about 2 a year. A cold-climate heat pump, the kind certified to hold 70 percent of its capacity and still turn out 1.75 units of heat per unit of electricity at 5°F, is built for nights colder than almost anything York County sees. A two-winter field test of these in occupied homes 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 without that rating is a different machine for this climate, and the 24°F average is its problem, not its exception.

Snow-covered stone steps lead to a white storm door on a blue shingled house, with a stacked woodpile and snow-topped stone wall beside the path.

What it costs to run, and what that doesn't settle

A gas furnace is the cheapest of the three to run here: $1.64 for every 100,000 Btu of heat, against $2.37 for a heat pump and $3.03 for an oil furnace. That gap holds at Pennsylvania's current gas and electric prices, and it's the plainest number in this decision if running cost is what matters most to you.

It is also why gas heats just over half the homes in York County, 51.2 percent, while electric heat sits at 23.9 percent and oil at 12.6. Most of your neighbors are already paying the cheaper fuel, and most of them already have the gas line a furnace needs.

But cost per Btu is not the whole decision. A furnace only heats. It does nothing for the four months a year it isn't running, and you still need a separate air conditioner. A heat pump heats and cools from one system, which matters if your AC is old or you're building this out fresh. If you already have working central air and a gas line to the house, a furnace is the cheaper, simpler match for what you're running into most winter nights. If you're replacing both systems at once and want one piece of equipment instead of two, a cold-climate heat pump is built to handle a York County winter and spares you the second system entirely. What it costs to run is one number. What it has to do on a 24°F night is another, and here, both point you toward being specific about which heat pump, not whether to rule the idea out.

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

A blue clapboard two-story house with a brick chimney and white trim stands between a gray shingled house and a white house, with piled snow along the roadside and bare trees under a clear sky.

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 as it gets colder, putting out less than its rated heat below 40°F and only a fraction of it in the teens. York County's overnight low averages 24°F in December, January and February, well inside that range. A heat pump built to the ENERGY STAR Cold Climate spec is tested to hold most of its capacity down to 5°F, so the spec of the unit matters more here than in a milder climate.

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

    Most homes with a standard heat pump need it. Below about 35°F a standard heat pump's efficiency drops and it often needs backup heat, and York County sees about 120 nights a year at or below freezing, roughly half the nights the heat runs. A cold-climate heat pump needs backup less often, since field tests of those units found backup heat supplied only a small share of the heat even between 0°F and 35°F, but the two or so nights a year here that hit 0°F still call for something to back it up.

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

    Yes, and that setup has a name: a dual fuel system. The heat pump handles the mild nights, and the furnace takes over once it gets too cold for the heat pump to run efficiently, usually somewhere below 35°F. Your gas furnace already does that job well here, since gas is cheaper to run than a heat pump at Pennsylvania's prices.

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

    No. A gas furnace makes 100,000 Btu of heat for $1.64 here, a heat pump for $2.37, so the furnace costs less to run at Pennsylvania's average prices. That heat pump figure is its federal minimum rating with nothing added for backup heat, which many homes need on the coldest nights. Oil comes in above both at $3.03.

A person in gloves kneels beside a gray outdoor air conditioning condenser on a concrete pad next to blue lap siding, connecting hoses to brass service valves, with an open tool bag on the mulch nearby.

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