Colorado Heating Pros

Heat pump vs furnace in Fremont County, Colorado

Get an Install Quote

No cost to ask

Which costs less to run in Fremont County?

An outdoor air conditioning condenser unit on a concrete pad beside a dark blue horizontal-lap sided wall at night, with a wall-mounted disconnect box and insulated refrigerant lines running to the unit.

Heat pump

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

A tall gray furnace cabinet stands on a concrete floor in a basement with dark blue painted block walls, with a galvanized metal flue duct and pipes running up behind it and a bare light bulb overhead.

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

    A heat pump runs the same way all year. It pulls heat into the house in winter and pushes it out in summer.

    A cream sectional sofa with navy and light blue cushions and a fringed blue throw sits beneath a white-framed window overlooking green garden foliage, with a rustic wooden coffee table holding a vase of flowers, a blue mug on a book, and a wooden bowl, beside a dark blue built-in cabinet.

  • Steady, even comfort

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

    A dimly lit living room with a lamp, a gray armchair holding an open book and navy pillow, a beige sofa, built-in shelves, and a yellow Labrador sleeping on a woven rug beside a wooden table with candles.

  • No gas line, nothing burning in the house

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

    Kitchen interior with a navy island topped by a wood counter and black induction hob holding a pale blue kettle, cream wall cabinets with a built-in black double oven, glass pendant lights, a vase of blue hydrangeas, and glass doors showing a fenced garden.

Where does a furnace shine?

  • Strong, steady heat in hard cold

    Winter nights here average 15°F, and a furnace puts out hot air from the first cycle, no matter how cold it gets outside. You get the same steady heat at the coldest point in January as you do in a mild stretch.

    A person in a dark coat carrying a bag walks up a shoveled snow path toward a blue wooden house with snow-covered roof and lit windows at dusk.

  • Runs on the gas most homes here already use

    Gas already heats close to 65% of homes in Fremont County, so there's a good chance the line to run a furnace is already at your house. That makes a furnace the simpler fit if your home is already set up for gas.

    A row of wood-sided houses with covered porches, concrete steps and metal railings along a snow-covered sidewalk in winter sunlight.

  • 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 into a light wood plank floor beside a sheer white curtain, with a blue mug on a gray notebook and a knit rug at the lower right.

What the cold does to a heat pump here

Your winter low here averages 15°F, and that number matters more than any other for this choice. A standard heat pump starts losing capacity below 40°F, and below about 35°F it usually needs backup heat to keep up. Fremont County sits below both marks every single night it drops to freezing or colder, which is about 155 nights a year, over half the nights in the nine months your heat runs.

That does not mean a heat pump quits. The ENERGY STAR Cold Climate models are built and tested to keep making real heat down at 5°F, around 70 percent of what they make at 47°F. Field tests of these cold-climate units found that backup heat carried only a small share of the load between 0°F and 35°F, and that running on backup alone was rare even above 0°F. Fremont County only sees about 7 nights a year that cold, so for most of the winter here a cold-climate heat pump is doing the work itself.

A standard heat pump, the kind built to the federal minimum, is a different case. It will struggle more often here, because the 15°F average low is well past the point where its output starts to fall short of its rating. If you are looking at a heat pump for this county, the Cold Climate label is the difference between a system that handles the winter and one that leans on backup heat all season.

A dark blue two-story house with white trim and a covered front porch stands behind snow-covered ground, with tall pine trees and a snowy mountain ridge under a clear blue sky.

What it costs to run, and what's already in the house

A gas furnace is the cheaper of the two to run here. The numbers above work out to $1.26 per 100,000 Btu for a furnace against $1.99 for a heat pump, using Colorado's average fuel prices. That gap holds for nine months a year, since homes here run heat from September through May and there is essentially no cooling season to offset it.

It also matches what most of your neighbors already have. Utility gas heats about two in three homes in Fremont County. Electric heat and propane each account for a little over one in ten. If gas already runs to your house, a furnace uses a line that's already there.

A heat pump's advantage shows up in a different place: it is also your air conditioner. That matters less here than in most counties, since the afternoon only hits 90°F or above about 35 days a year. If you want one system that heats and cools, a heat pump does both jobs. If you already have central AC or don't need much cooling, a furnace paired with the AC you have will cost less to run through the winter and do the one job it has for the full nine months you need it.

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

A single-story navy blue house with white trim, a one-car garage and a concrete driveway, surrounded by snow, pine trees, a wood fence, and snow-capped mountains in the background.

Common questions about heat pumps and furnaces

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

    Yes, but a standard heat pump works harder for less as the temperature drops. Below 40°F it puts out less heat than its rating, and below about 35°F it typically needs backup heat to keep up. With winter nights here averaging 15°F, a heat pump would be below both marks on most of the nights the heat is running.

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

    Most homes here would want it. The average overnight low in December, January and February is 15°F, well below the roughly 35°F mark where a standard heat pump often starts leaning on backup heat. About 155 nights a year here drop to freezing or colder, so that is not a rare cold snap, it is most of the winter.

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

    Yes, and here that combination is worth considering. A heat pump handles the mild nights and your furnace carries the load once it gets below about 35°F, which is where a standard heat pump's output starts falling behind anyway. That split matters in a place where the average winter night runs 15°F and about 155 nights a year drop to freezing or below.

  • Is a heat pump cheaper to run than a furnace in Fremont 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, both priced at Colorado's average fuel rates. That gap comes from gas being cheaper per unit of heat here than electricity, not from either machine being built poorly.

A person's arm in a dark blue shirt reaches to adjust a round wall-mounted thermostat on a pale blue wall, with a living room containing a leather sofa, lamp and coffee table behind, and an open tool bag on the wood floor below.

Tell us about the job

Takes about a minute. No obligation.

Step 1 of 3: Equipment