Colorado Heating Pros

Heat pump vs furnace in Weld County, Colorado

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For homes in Weld County

Which costs less to run in Weld County?

A gray outdoor condenser unit with a top-mounted fan grille sits on a concrete pad against dark blue lap siding, with a conduit running to a small wall-mounted disconnect box, photographed at night.

Heat pump

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

A beige gas furnace with louvered panels stands in a dark basement corner beside a metal flue pipe, ductwork, and painted block walls, 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

    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 with a lit stone fireplace, a navy armchair holding an open book, a cushion and gray fringed throw, a brass table lamp and mug on a side table, and a golden retriever sleeping on a woven rug.

  • 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.

    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.

  • 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 light blue and navy pillows and a blue fringed throw, a wooden coffee table with a woven tray and potted plant, a navy built-in bookcase with books, baskets and plants, a table lamp, and a large window showing green trees and white flowering shrubs.

Where does a furnace shine?

  • 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 wood floor near a window with sheer white curtains, a white baseboard, a dark blue cabinet at right, and a patterned rug in the foreground.

  • Runs on the gas most homes here already use

    Most homes in Weld County already have gas line run to them, 73% of occupied homes here heat with it. A furnace just uses what's already there instead of asking the house for something new.

    A row of wood-sided houses with covered porches, stone columns and an exterior gas meter along a snow-covered street, with a person in dark clothing walking on the sidewalk in the distance.

  • Fast, strong heat on demand

    A furnace pushes out hot air within minutes of switching on. A cold house warms up fast.

    An entryway with a navy paneled door and sheer curtain, a steaming blue speckled mug on a wooden bench draped with a knit blanket, a striped runner rug over tile, a floor vent, and snow-dusted boots by the wall.

Can a heat pump keep up with a Weld County winter

Your furnace or heat pump here has real work to do. Heat runs about eight months a year, October through May, longer than any other season. The overnight low averages 16°F across December, January and February, and it drops to freezing or below on about 165 nights a year, more than half of the nights the heat is running. That's the test a heating system faces here, night after night, not just on the coldest week.

A standard heat pump starts losing ground before it gets anywhere near that cold. Below 40°F it already puts out less heat than its rating says. Below about 35°F it often needs backup heat to make up the difference. The average winter low here is 16°F, under both marks, and every single one of those 165 freezing nights falls below both too. That's not a worst-case night, that's most of a Weld County winter.

There is a version built for this. A heat pump carrying the ENERGY STAR Cold Climate label has to prove it can still make 1.75 units of heat for every unit of electricity at 5°F, and hold onto at least 70 percent of its 47°F capacity at that temperature, checked by outside testing. In a two-winter field test of prototype cold-climate heat pumps in occupied homes, backup heat only covered a small share of the load between 0°F and 35°F, and the home running on backup heat alone was rare even above 0°F. A standard heat pump has no such proof behind it. If you're looking at a heat pump for a house here, the Cold Climate rating is what tells you it can actually do the job on a 16°F night, not just a mild one.

Nights at 0°F or below are rare here, about 7 a year, a small slice of the 165 freezing nights. So the real question for a heat pump isn't whether it can survive the occasional deep cold snap. It's whether it can carry the house through an ordinary January night in the teens and twenties, which is most of what a Weld County winter actually is.

A dark blue single-story house with a light blue door, white trim and a covered porch, surrounded by deep snow, conifers and snow-covered mountains under a clear blue sky, with a shoveled path leading to the steps.

What each one costs to run, and what already serves this county

Run on Colorado's average fuel prices, a gas furnace is cheaper to operate than a heat pump here: $1.26 per 100,000 Btu against $1.99, both at the federal minimum efficiency for their type. That gap doesn't include backup heat, which a standard heat pump will lean on through a chunk of those 165 freezing nights, so the real difference in a Weld County winter runs wider than the sticker figures.

What's already in the ground here points the same way. Utility gas heats about three in four homes in Weld County. Electricity heats about one in five. A furnace runs on the fuel most of your neighbors already have coming into their house. That's worth something if your home was built with a gas line in it already, something to check rather than assume, since half the homes here were built in 2001 or earlier and half since.

A furnace only does one job. It has nothing to do for the four months a year it isn't heating, so it still needs a separate air conditioner to get your house through the 45 days a year that reach 90°F or better. A heat pump heats and cools from the same system, which matters if you're replacing an aging AC anyway and would rather not pay for two machines when one can do both.

So the choice here isn't which machine is better in the abstract. It's whether you value the lower running cost and the fuel already built into most homes in this county, or you'd rather have one system that heats and cools and never needs a gas line, and are willing to pay more to run it and make sure it carries a Cold Climate rating to do the job on the coldest nights.

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

Snow-covered wooden porch and steps leading to a light blue front door on a dark navy board-and-batten cabin, with a lit lantern sconce, stacked firewood, a small barrel, and 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 alone on the coldest nights. A standard heat pump loses capacity below 40°F and often leans on backup heat below about 35°F, and this county's winter lows average 16°F with about 7 nights a year at 0°F or below. A cold climate heat pump is built to hold onto more of its capacity at low temperatures, and field testing has found backup heat covers only a small share of the heat needed between 0°F and 35°F. Either way, most installations here pair the heat pump with a backup source for those coldest stretches.

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

    Most likely, yes. A standard heat pump's output falls short of its rating below 40°F and it often needs backup heat below about 35°F. The average overnight low here is 16°F, and almost every night that drops to freezing or below, about 165 a year, falls below both marks. A cold climate model holds up better at low temperatures, but check what backup, if any, came with your system.

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

    Yes, and here that pairing has a name: a dual fuel system. The heat pump carries the heat down to the point it struggles in the cold, and the furnace takes over for the rest. With winter lows here averaging 16°F, well below the 35°F mark where a standard heat pump starts to need backup, your existing furnace is already suited to that job.

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

    No, a gas furnace costs less to run here. Making the same amount of heat costs about $1.99 with a heat pump against $1.26 with a gas furnace, both running at their federal minimum efficiency on Colorado's average fuel prices. That gap comes from the price of electricity against the price of natural gas here, not from how well either machine works.

A man in a blue shirt and cap kneels in a basement working on ductwork above a gray furnace, with an open tool bag on the floor beside him and a staircase and water heater in the background.

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