Colorado Heating Pros

Heat pump vs furnace in Delta County, Colorado

Price a Replacement

Install quotes in Delta County

Which costs less to run in Delta County?

An outdoor air conditioning condenser unit on a concrete pad beside a dark blue horizontal lap-sided wall at night, lit from above, with a disconnect box on the wall and fallen leaves on the ground.

Heat pump

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

A beige sheet-metal furnace stands on a concrete basement floor against a dark blue painted block wall, with galvanized flue ducts rising to the ceiling and a flexible metal conduit and PVC pipe at its left side.

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?

  • Steady, even comfort

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

    A golden-coated dog sleeps on a woven rug beside a lit wood stove, in front of a dark blue armchair with a grey knit throw, open book and cushion, near a frosted window and a bookshelf.

  • 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.

    Living room with a white-framed sash window overlooking a green garden, a potted plant and books on a wooden bench below, a navy built-in bookcase at left, and a pale sofa with a navy knit throw and blue table lamp at right.

  • No gas line, nothing burning in the house

    It moves heat instead of making it from fire. That means no combustion, no flue and no gas bill for heat.

    A kitchen with navy blue cabinets, white marble-look counters and backsplash, a stainless steel kettle on a black cooktop under a range hood, a potted plant, bowl of lemons, wooden utensils and cutting board, and a light blue mug on a foreground island beside a sink.

Where does a furnace shine?

  • Strong, steady heat in hard cold

    Winter nights here average 17°F, and a furnace puts out hot air from the start, no matter how cold it gets outside. You get the same strong heat on the coldest night of January as you do in a mild spell.

    A dark navy clapboard house with a snow-covered roof and lit windows at dusk, with a shoveled path, a lantern in the snow, and snow-laden evergreen and bare trees around it.

  • Runs on the gas most homes here already use

    More than half the homes in Delta County already heat with gas. If yours is one of them, a gas furnace just ties into the line that's already there.

    A row of houses with covered porches, white railings and exterior gas meters, with snow on the ground beside a concrete sidewalk in low sunlight.

  • Proven, simple, easy to get serviced

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

    A gloved hand holds a clean white pleated air filter in front of a basement furnace, ducting, and wooden shelves holding plastic bins and folded textiles.

What winter here does to a heat pump

Your winter low here averages 17°F. That number decides this. A standard heat pump starts falling short of its rated heat output below 40°F and often needs backup heat below about 35°F. Seventeen is under both marks, and so is every one of the roughly 160 nights a year here that hit freezing or below, over half the nights across the nine months your heat runs.

That does not mean the house goes cold. It means the heat pump is leaning on backup heat, usually electric resistance, through most of the winter here, not just on the rare hard freeze. The $1.99 per 100,000 Btu figure on this page is the heat pump at its rated efficiency with nothing added for that backup heat, so a real winter night here likely costs more to heat than that number says.

There is a version built for this kind of cold. Heat pumps carrying the ENERGY STAR Cold Climate label are tested to hold at least 70 percent of their rated capacity at 5°F and still make more heat than the electricity put into them. In field tests of these units, backup heat covered only a small share of the output between 0°F and 35°F, and running on backup alone was rare even then. That is the version that holds up through a winter here. A standard heat pump is not.

A dark blue two-story house with a white wraparound porch and snow-covered roof, surrounded by deep snow, snow-laden evergreen trees, and a white mailbox, with forested snowy mountains under a clear blue sky behind.

Cost, and the furnace most of your neighbors already have

Run the two side by side on price and the furnace wins. Colorado's gas and electric rates put the furnace at $1.26 per 100,000 Btu against $1.99 for the heat pump, and that gap holds across all nine months you run heat here, not just on the hard freezes. A furnace built to the federal minimum turns 80 percent of the gas it burns into heat for your house, and it does that the same way whether the night is at freezing or at 0°F, with no backup system standing behind it.

Gas already heats about half the homes in Delta County, more than three times the share heating with electricity. A furnace only does one job, though. It has nothing to offer the two months of cooling here, July and August, while a heat pump runs your air conditioning as well, so part of this choice comes down to what you want your ductwork doing in August, not just what it owes you in January.

Given the lows here, a standard heat pump means paying more to run and still leaning on backup heat most winter nights. A gas furnace costs less to run and does not care how cold it gets outside. A Cold Climate heat pump narrows that gap and adds summer cooling in one system, but it still costs more to run than gas at Colorado's current prices. For most houses here, the furnace is the plainer, cheaper way to stay warm.

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

Snow-covered wooden steps and railing lead to a light blue door on a dark navy board-and-batten cabin, with stacked firewood, a wall lantern, and snowy conifers behind.

Common questions about heat pumps and furnaces

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

    A standard heat pump can, but it struggles on the coldest nights here. Below about 35°F it often needs backup heat, and below 40°F it puts out less than its rated capacity, with only a fraction of that on nights in the teens. An ENERGY STAR Cold Climate model is built to hold up better, rated to keep at least 70 percent of its capacity at 5°F.

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

    Most homes here will want it. Your overnight low averages 17°F across the winter, and about 160 nights a year drop to freezing or below, all of it under the 35°F mark where a standard heat pump typically needs help. A cold-climate heat pump narrows how often that backup has to run, but it rarely removes the need for it in a place this cold.

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

    Yes, and in Delta County it's worth planning for. A heat pump's output falls below its rating once it's under 40°F outside, and your overnight low averages 17°F through December, January and February. Keeping the furnace as backup means it only has to carry those colder nights, while the heat pump handles the rest and also cools your house in July and August.

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

    No. At Colorado's average prices, a gas furnace makes the same heat for $1.26 per 100,000 Btu against $1.99 for a heat pump, both built to the federal minimum. Gas costs less here than electricity for the same heat, which is why the furnace comes out cheaper to run even before any backup heat is added in.

A person in a navy hooded sweatshirt, tan work pants and a knit cap kneels beside a furnace in a basement utility area, with sheet metal ductwork, PVC and copper piping overhead and a black tool bag on the concrete floor nearby.

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