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Heat pump vs furnace in Larimer County, Colorado

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Which costs less to run in Larimer County?

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

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?

  • Steady, even comfort

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

    A dark blue armchair with an open book and gray fringed throw sits beside a lit fireplace and a lamp-topped side table, with a golden-colored dog curled asleep on a patterned rug and snowy trees beyond the window.

  • Heats and cools in one system

    Winter and summer are covered by the same outdoor unit. That's one machine to service instead of two.

    A living room with a beige sofa holding navy and light blue cushions and a fringed knit throw, beside a window overlooking a green garden, with a dark blue built-in bookshelf on the left and a wooden coffee table holding a mug, wooden tray and a vase of white flowers.

  • No gas line, nothing burning in the house

    There's no gas line to the unit and no flame anywhere in it. Carbon monoxide isn't part of the picture.

    A kitchen with navy cabinets, white marble-look counters and backsplash, a stainless range hood over an induction cooktop with a kettle, a wall oven with a striped towel, utensils, cutting boards, potted plants, a bowl of green apples and blue hydrangeas in the foreground.

Where does a furnace shine?

  • Strong, steady heat in hard cold

    Winter nights here average 15°F, and a furnace keeps putting out hot air no matter how far the temperature drops. You get the same warm blast from the vents at midnight in January as you do in the fall.

    A dark navy two-story house with white trim, lit windows, a covered porch and brick chimney, surrounded by deep snow with a cleared paved walkway leading to the front steps at dusk.

  • Runs on the gas most homes here already use

    Most homes in Larimer County already have a gas line run to a furnace, so staying with gas means using the hookup that's already there instead of adding new ones.

    A row of brick houses with covered porches, blue-painted posts and railings, and metal gas meters, beside a cleared sidewalk bordered by snow and bare trees in low sunlight.

  • Fast, strong heat on demand

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

    Entryway with coats hung above a wooden bench holding mittens and a steaming mug, boots on a tile floor, a jute mat, a floor vent with visible warm air, a sheer curtain blowing by a window showing snow, and a dark blue door.

Why winter here decides this

Your furnace runs ten months a year here, September through June, and for most of those nights the temperature works against a heat pump rather than with it. A standard heat pump's output falls short of its rating once it drops below 40°F outside, and below about 35°F it usually needs backup heat to keep up. The average overnight low here in December, January and February is 15°F. That is not an edge case. That is the winter.

About 165 nights a year here fall to freezing or below, more than half the nights the heat runs at all. Every one of those nights sits below both the 40°F and 35°F marks. On a cold climate model built and tested to hold its output down to 5°F, that is less of a problem. On a standard heat pump, it means the backup heat is doing real work most winters, not just on the rare bad night.

That rare bad night still happens. About 7 nights a year here drop to 0°F or below. A small number next to 165, but worth knowing: it is the one point in the year where even a good cold climate heat pump is leaning hardest on whatever backs it up.

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What that means for the bill and the choice

Run the numbers at Colorado's own prices and the furnace wins on cost before winter even factors in. A gas furnace makes the same heat here for $1.26 per 100,000 Btu against $1.99 for a heat pump, with nothing added for the backup heat a standard heat pump leans on below 35°F. Add that backup in and the gap only grows.

Two in three homes here already heat with gas, one in four with electricity. That split tends to follow what is already run to the house. If your furnace came with the house, a gas line is already there and a replacement furnace uses it as is.

A furnace only heats. It has nothing to do the other two months of the year here, when nobody is running heat anyway. A heat pump covers both jobs, heat and air conditioning, in one system. Larimer County has essentially no cooling season, so that second job is not buying much here. If what you want is the cheapest way to stay warm from September to June, the furnace does that. If you want one machine for everything and are prepared to pay more to run it, a cold climate heat pump is the version built for this kind of winter, not the standard one.

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

A dark blue wood-sided cabin entry with a light blue door, timber-framed porch roof, stacked firewood, and snow-covered railings and steps, with snowy conifers behind.

Common questions about heat pumps and furnaces

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

    It can, but not at full strength on the coldest nights. Below 40°F a conventional heat pump puts out less than its rated capacity, and here the overnight low averages 15°F in December, January and February. A heat pump built to the ENERGY STAR Cold Climate spec is tested to keep most of its capacity down to 5°F, which matters since lows hit freezing or below on about 165 nights a year.

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

    Most winters here, yes. The overnight low averages 15°F across December, January and February, well under the 35°F mark where a standard heat pump typically starts needing help, and under the 40°F mark where its heat output already falls short of its rating. A cold climate model holds up better down to 5°F, but on the coldest nights, about 7 a year reach 0°F or below, some form of backup is worth having.

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

    Yes, and here that often makes more sense than running a heat pump alone. The furnace handles the cold nights, and plenty of them: about 165 a year fall at or below freezing, with lows averaging 15°F across December, January and February. A standard heat pump loses heating capacity below 40°F and often needs backup heat below about 35°F, so pairing it with the furnace you already have covers the gap instead of leaning on electric backup.

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

    No. A gas furnace runs about $1.26 per 100,000 Btu of heat here against $1.99 for a heat pump, so the furnace costs less to make the same heat. That gap comes from Colorado's fuel prices, natural gas at $10.09 per million Btu against electricity at $43.72, and it does not include what a heat pump would spend on backup heat during the roughly 165 nights a year here that drop to freezing or below.

A person's hand in a dark blue sleeve adjusts a round wall-mounted thermostat with a black screen, with a living room containing a gray sofa, potted plant and open tool bag in the background.

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