Colorado Heating Pros

Heat pump vs furnace in Denver County, Colorado

Price a Replacement

Install quotes in Denver County

Which costs less to run in Denver County?

A gray outdoor condenser unit on a concrete pad beside a dark blue horizontal-lap sided wall at night, lit by a wall-mounted light above, with an electrical disconnect box on the wall behind it.

Heat pump

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

A beige gas furnace cabinet with a louvered upper panel stands on a concrete floor against a dark blue painted block wall, with a galvanized metal flue pipe, flexible conduit, and a gas line running up from it.

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?

  • 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 a navy blue island topped by a white marble-look counter holding a black induction cooktop, a light blue kettle and a glass vase of hydrangeas, with white cabinets and a stainless wall oven in the background.

  • Steady, even comfort

    It eases up and down with the weather. There are fewer swings between too warm and too cool.

    A navy upholstered armchair with ottoman, open book and throw blanket sits beside a lit fireplace and white built-in bookshelves, with a golden-colored dog lying on a gray rug and snow visible through the window.

  • 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 holding navy and light blue cushions and a blue throw, a wooden coffee table with a mug, bowl, books and white hydrangeas, flanked by table lamps and a bookshelf, in front of a large window overlooking a green garden.

Where does a furnace shine?

  • Strong, steady heat in hard cold

    Denver winter nights average 19°F, and that's a cold a furnace shrugs off without working harder for it. It pulls heat straight from burning gas, so the air coming out of your vents stays warm no matter how far the temperature drops outside.

    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

    Most homes in Denver County already have a gas line run to them, 60.8% by the last count, so a furnace just uses what's already there. No new fuel source to add to the house.

    A row of wood-sided houses with covered front porches and painted railings along a snowy sidewalk, with a gas meter at the near house and a person in a dark coat walking in the distance under bare trees.

  • Fast, strong heat on demand

    Turn the heat up and the furnace answers right away. There's no long wait for the house to catch up.

    An entryway with a navy door and sheer curtain showing snow outside, snow-dusted black winter boots and brown suede boots on a patterned rug, a floor air vent, and a wooden bench holding a steaming mug and a light blue fringed blanket.

What winter here does to a heat pump

Your furnace or heat pump runs about eight months a year here, October through May, and the cold is real cold. The overnight low averages 19°F across December, January and February, and it drops to freezing or below on about 155 nights a year, over half the nights the heat is running at all. That matters because a standard heat pump has two marks against it in weather like this. Below 40°F it puts out less heat than its rating says. Below about 35°F it often needs backup heat to keep up. Denver's average winter night is under both marks, and every single one of those 155 freezing nights is too.

This is not the same as saying a heat pump will leave you cold. A heat pump built to carry the ENERGY STAR Cold Climate label has to prove it can make real heat at 5°F, at least 1.75 units of heat for every unit of electricity, while holding onto most of its capacity from 47°F. Field tests of cold-climate heat pumps in real homes back this up: backup heat covered only a small share of the load between 0°F and 35°F, and the unit ran on backup alone only rarely, even below 0°F. The nights that cold are few here anyway, about 5 a year. A standard heat pump will struggle on your coldest nights. A cold-climate one, sized and installed for this, usually will not.

A single-story dark blue house with an attached two-car garage and cleared driveway, surrounded by plowed snowbanks, with a large pine trunk in the foreground and snow-covered mountains behind.

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

Run the two side by side at Colorado's own prices and the furnace wins on cost. A gas furnace makes the same heat for $1.26 per 100,000 Btu against $1.99 for a heat pump, so the furnace costs at least 36% less to run here. That gap is with both machines built to the bare federal minimum, and it does not include backup heat on the heat pump's coldest nights, which would widen it further.

Gas is also just more common in Denver County. Utility gas heats 60.8% of homes here, about three in five, against 35.6% on electricity. If your house already has a gas line and gas furnace, staying on gas is the simpler and cheaper path. If it does not, installing one is a bigger step, and the calculation changes.

Cooling is where the heat pump earns something back. Summers here are short, about three months, June through August, with only about 50 days a year hitting 90°F or higher. A heat pump is an air conditioner and a heater in one system. A furnace only heats, so for the other four months of the year it does nothing and you need a separate AC unit regardless. If you are weighing a new furnace against a heat pump and already have central air, that split matters less. If you are replacing both at once, the heat pump covers both jobs with one piece of equipment in your mechanical room.

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 navy blue single-story house with white trim, a light blue front door and covered porch, surrounded by snow, with conifers and snow-covered mountain peaks behind under a clear blue sky.

Common questions about heat pumps and furnaces

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

    It can, but it won't do the job alone most winters here. A standard heat pump's output drops below 40°F and often needs backup heat below about 35°F, and Denver's winter overnight low averages 19°F. An ENERGY STAR Cold Climate model holds up better in deep cold, but check which kind you're being quoted before you count on it for the whole season.

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

    Most winters, yes. Denver's overnight low averages 19°F across December, January and February, well below the 35°F mark where a standard heat pump often needs help and the 40°F mark where its output starts falling short of its rating. About 155 nights a year here drop to freezing or below, so backup heat isn't just for the rare cold snap.

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

    Yes, and here that often means the furnace runs as the backup heat for cold nights instead of electric strip heat. Your heat pump's output falls short of its rating below 40°F and often needs help below about 35°F. Denver's overnight low averages 19°F in December, January and February, so the furnace would pick up real work most winter nights.

  • Is a heat pump cheaper to run than a furnace in Denver 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, so the furnace costs less to run here. That gap already assumes the heat pump never switches on backup heat, which it likely will on the colder nights.

A person's hand in a light blue shirt adjusts a dial on a white wall-mounted thermostat on a dark navy wall, with a living room containing a gray sofa, coffee table and a tool bag in the background.

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