Colorado Heating Pros

Heat pump vs furnace in Alamosa County, Colorado

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Pros who work in Alamosa County

Which costs less to run in Alamosa County?

A gray outdoor condensing unit with a top-mounted fan grille sits on a concrete pad surrounded by gravel, against dark horizontal siding with a wall-mounted electrical disconnect box above it, lit at night.

Heat pump

To heat your home here$1.99per 100,000 Btu

A beige furnace with louvered panels stands against a dark blue basement wall, with metal ductwork, a flue pipe, and conduit above it, lit by a bare ceiling bulb.

Furnace

To heat your home here$1.26per 100,000 Btu

At Colorado's gas and electricity prices, a gas furnace makes the same heat as a heat pump for at least 36% 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

    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 light blue sectional sofa, linen and navy pillows, a wooden coffee table with potted plants, a large window with a beige roman shade overlooking green trees and flowering shrubs, a navy built-in bookshelf, a blue ceramic table lamp, and a woven chair in the foreground.

  • No gas line, nothing burning in the house

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

    Kitchen with light wood cabinets, white marble-look countertops and backsplash, a navy blue island with wooden stools, an induction cooktop with a steel kettle, two blue pendant lights, stainless refrigerator and black wall oven.

  • 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 night with a light blue armchair holding an open book and a navy cushion, a lit tripod floor lamp, a low wooden bookshelf with baskets and framed photos, and a curly brown dog sleeping on a patterned rug.

Where does a furnace shine?

  • Strong, steady heat in hard cold

    Winter nights here average 8°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 dark navy two-story house with white trim, dormer windows and a covered porch, its windows glowing yellow at dusk, with a shoveled path through deep snow leading to the steps and a lit lamp post at right.

  • 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 register set into a hardwood floor near a window with sheer curtains, with sunlight casting shadows across the boards beside a dark blue wall and white baseboard.

  • Fast, strong heat on demand

    The air coming from the vents feels genuinely hot. That's welcome on a freezing morning.

    Entryway with a dark navy glass-paned door showing snow outside, winter boots on a tiled floor beside a blue runner rug, a sheer curtain at a window, a wooden bench with a blue throw and steaming mug, and coats hanging on wall hooks.

What the cold does to a heat pump here

Winter is the whole question in Alamosa County. The heat runs nine months a year, September through May, and the overnight low averages 8°F through December, January and February. That is not a cold snap. That is most nights, most of the winter.

A standard heat pump starts losing ground before it even gets that cold. Below 40°F it puts out less heat than its rating says, and below about 35°F it often needs backup heat to keep up. Here, the average winter night is 8°F. Every one of the roughly 225 nights a year that drop to freezing or below is already past both of those marks. This is not a machine working near its edge once in a while. It is working past its edge most of the winter.

About 45 nights a year here hit 0°F or lower. That is under a quarter of the nights that freeze, but it tells you how deep the cold goes. A heat pump built to the federal minimum is not the machine rated for that. There is a version built for it: the ENERGY STAR Cold Climate heat pump, which has to prove it can still make 1.75 units of heat per unit of electricity at 5°F and hold on to 70 percent of its warm-weather capacity at that temperature, tested by a third party, not claimed by the manufacturer. In field tests of prototype cold-climate heat pumps over two winters, backup heat only carried a small share of the load between 0°F and 35°F, and the system rarely ran on backup alone even above 0°F. That is a different machine from the standard one the cost comparison above assumes. If a heat pump is on the table here, it is that version or nothing.

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What it costs to run, and what that means for cooling

Run the numbers at Colorado's own prices and the furnace wins on cost. A gas furnace built to the federal minimum makes heat here for $1.26 per 100,000 Btu. A heat pump built to the same federal minimum makes it for $1.99, and that figure doesn't even add anything for the backup heat it will lean on during Alamosa County's long, hard winters. A furnace heating this county's homes costs at least 36 percent less to run than a heat pump doing the same job.

There's a reason gas is the most common fuel here. Utility gas heats 48 percent of homes in the county, about half. Electricity heats a quarter of them, and propane a little over one in ten. A furnace burning gas is already how most of your neighbors heat their houses through a winter like this one.

The other side of the decision is summer, and in Alamosa County there isn't one to speak of. No month here is warm enough to call for cooling. A furnace only heats, so for those months it has nothing to do, and that costs you nothing either way. A heat pump's edge is doing both jobs in one system, but that edge is worth less in a county that barely needs the cooling half. If what you want is one system that heats this house through a Colorado winter at the lowest running cost, the furnace is doing the job your climate actually asks for. A heat pump only makes sense here if it's the cold-climate kind, and even then, you are paying more per Btu for the privilege of a cooling season this county rarely uses.

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

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Common questions about heat pumps and furnaces

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

    It can, but a standard heat pump loses ground once it gets cold. Below 40°F its output falls short of its rating, and below about 35°F it often needs backup heat to keep up. The average overnight low here runs 8°F in December, January and February, well past both marks, and that's the average, not the coldest night.

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

    Yes. The overnight low here averages 8°F across the winter, and a standard heat pump needs backup heat once it drops below about 35°F outside. That's most nights here, not just the occasional cold snap. A cold-climate model closes some of that gap, but check what backup source it pairs with before you count on it alone.

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

    Yes, a heat pump and a furnace can share a house, with the heat pump doing the work most of the year and the furnace carrying the coldest nights. That split suits Alamosa County well, since the overnight low falls to freezing on about 225 nights a year and to 0°F or below on about 45 of them. On those nights the furnace is the one built for it, delivering full output while the heat pump's drops off.

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

    No, a gas furnace costs less to run here. Heating with a furnace runs $1.26 per 100,000 Btu against $1.99 for a heat pump, at Colorado's average fuel prices. That gap holds before adding anything for the backup heat a heat pump needs on the roughly 225 nights a year here that drop to freezing or below.

A person in a dark blue shirt and black gloves uses a wrench on brass service valves and copper lines at the side of an outdoor air conditioning condenser unit, with a tool bag and a cordless drill on the mulch in the foreground.

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