Colorado Heating Pros

Heat pump vs furnace in Prowers County, Colorado

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Pros who work in Prowers County

Which costs less to run in Prowers County?

A gray outdoor condensing unit with a top-mounted fan grille sits on a concrete pad surrounded by gravel, against dark horizontal siding with a wall-mounted electrical disconnect box above it, lit at night.

Heat pump

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

A beige furnace with a louvered upper panel and metal flue pipe stands on a concrete basement floor beside pipes and ductwork, lit by a bare hanging bulb against a dark blue wall.

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 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

    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 blue shaker cabinets, white subway tile backsplash, light stone countertops, a stainless range hood over a cooktop with a pale blue kettle, and an island holding a vase of white hydrangeas and a bowl of green apples with wooden stools.

  • 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 light blue sofa and navy cushion in front of a large three-pane window overlooking green trees, with a rustic wood coffee table, woven rug, navy cabinetry and bookshelves, a wall lamp, and potted plants.

Where does a furnace shine?

  • Strong, steady heat in hard cold

    Winter nights here average 19°F, and a furnace keeps putting out the same hot air no matter how cold it gets outside. The heat from the vents won't feel any weaker on the coldest night of the year.

    A dark navy two-story house with white trim and lit windows at dusk, with deep snow banked around shrubs and a cleared brick walkway lined with glowing lanterns leading to the front door.

  • Runs on the gas most homes here already use

    Most homes in Prowers County already have a gas line in place, since utility gas heats 74% of homes here. If yours is one of them, a gas furnace just hooks into what's already run to the house.

    A row of attached houses with porches, columns and painted railings along a sidewalk, with concrete front steps, exterior gas meters and piping, and snow on the ground.

  • 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 in a wood-plank floor near a window with sheer white and gray curtains, beside a dark side table holding a mug and a wicker basket of folded cloth.

Cold is the whole question here

Heat runs about seven months a year in Prowers County, October through April. Cooling runs about four, June through September. Whatever goes into this house will spend most of its life heating it, not cooling it.

The overnight low averages 19°F across December, January and February. That is below both marks that matter for a heat pump. Below 40°F outside, a standard heat pump puts out less than its rated capacity. Below about 35°F, it often needs backup heat to cover the rest. An average winter night here is past both marks already, before you get to the coldest ones.

Cold nights are not the exception here, they are most of the season. About 160 nights a year fall at or below freezing. Nights that reach 0°F or below are about 5 a year, a small part of those 160. The real question is not whether the house sees a hard freeze a few nights a year. It is what heats the house on the other 155 nights in the 20s and teens.

A standard heat pump is not built for that stretch. Its output falls off through exactly the range this county sits in most of the winter. A furnace does not have this problem. It is sized for cold and its output does not drop as the temperature does.

A heat pump built to the ENERGY STAR Cold Climate standard is a different machine. To carry that label it has to make at least 1.75 units of heat per unit of electricity at 5°F, and hold onto at least 70 percent of its 47°F capacity at that same temperature, checked by outside testing. In a two-winter field test of these cold-climate models in occupied homes, backup heat covered only a small share of the load between 0°F and 35°F, and running on backup alone was rare even above 0°F. That is the heat pump that can do this county's winter. A standard one is not.

A frost-covered storm door on a pale blue clapboard house, with a snow shovel leaning beside it and snow covering the front steps and metal railings.

What each one costs to run, and what the house already has

Running cost favors the furnace. At Colorado's average fuel 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. That is at least 36 percent less to run, and the heat pump's number already assumes no backup heat is needed, so on the coldest nights the gap only grows.

What already runs to the house matters here too. Utility gas heats about three in four homes in Prowers County, 74 percent. Electric heat is uncommon, 15 percent, lower than Colorado's statewide share of 25.6 percent. A furnace uses the gas line most houses here already have. A heat pump runs on electricity alone.

A furnace only heats. For the other five months of the year here it does nothing. A heat pump heats and cools from the same system, which matters in a county where the afternoon hits 90°F or higher on about 75 days a year. If the air conditioner needs replacing too, a heat pump is one system doing both jobs instead of two.

So the choice depends on what matters more for this house. A furnace costs less to run and uses the gas line already in place, and it never loses capacity in the cold. A cold-climate heat pump can keep up with this county's winter and adds air conditioning in one system, at a higher running cost than gas. A standard heat pump without that rating is the one option that does not hold up to what the winters here actually do.

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

Front entrance of a blue-sided house with a white gabled porch, a frosted glass storm door, a snow shovel leaning beside it, and concrete steps cleared between deep snowbanks.

Common questions about heat pumps and furnaces

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

    It can, but a standard model struggles on the coldest nights here. Below 40°F it puts out less than its rated heat, and below about 35°F it often leans on backup heat, and that covers most winter nights here, since lows average 19°F. A cold-climate model, rated to hold at least 70 percent of its capacity at 5°F, handles those nights with less help.

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

    Most likely, yes. A standard heat pump's output drops below its rating once it's under 40°F outside, and it often needs backup below about 35°F. Every one of the roughly 160 nights a year here at or below freezing falls under both marks.

  • Will a heat pump keep my house cool enough here?

    Yes. Cooling works the same in a heat pump as in a central air conditioner, so it will keep the house cool through the four-month cooling season here, including the roughly 75 days a year that reach 90°F or above.

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

    Yes, and here that pairing makes sense. The heat pump carries the mild stretches of the seven-month heating season, and the furnace takes over when it gets cold enough that the heat pump's output falls short, which happens often given winter lows average 19°F.

A person in gloves kneels on gravel beside a gray outdoor air conditioning condenser on a concrete pad, working on its copper line connections, with wrenches and a screwdriver on a blue cloth and a tool bag nearby.

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