Colorado Heating Pros

Heat pump vs furnace in Routt County, Colorado

Price a Replacement

Install quotes in Routt County

Which costs less to run in Routt County?

An outdoor air conditioning condenser unit with a top-mounted fan grille sits on a concrete pad surrounded by mulch, against dark horizontal siding at night.

Heat pump

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

A beige sheet-metal furnace with louvered access panels stands against a dark blue painted basement wall on a concrete floor, with metal flue ducts rising from its top and gas piping along the 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?

  • 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 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

    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 dark knit throw, a wooden coffee table with a bowl, books and a mug, a jute rug, wooden sideboard with a lamp and plants, and a large window with linen curtains showing green garden foliage.

Where does a furnace shine?

  • Strong, steady heat in hard cold

    Winter nights here average 11°F through December, January and February. A furnace burns gas to make heat, so it keeps putting out the same strong heat no matter how cold it gets outside.

    A dark-sided two-story house with lit windows and a small covered porch at dusk, fronted by a narrow shoveled path through deep snow, with bare trees and evergreens around it.

  • Pairs with any central AC

    The ductwork that delivers heat in winter delivers cool air in summer once an AC coil is added.

    A rectangular metal floor vent set into a hardwood floor near a white baseboard and dark cabinet, with a sheer curtain hanging above and a blue patterned rug at the lower right.

  • Fast, strong heat on demand

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

    A mudroom entry with a dark navy glass-paned door showing snowy trees outside, fur-trimmed boots on a jute mat, a wooden bench with a blue blanket and mug, hanging coats, pale blue cabinets, a sheer curtain, and a floor vent.

Can a heat pump keep up with an 11°F winter

Your winter nights average 11°F here, and about 230 of them drop to freezing or below. That matters because a standard heat pump starts losing heat output below 40°F and often needs backup heat below about 35°F. Here, every single one of those 230 freezing nights falls below both marks. This is not a system that dips below its rating on a rare cold snap. It runs below its rating most nights it is working.

About 35 nights a year here reach 0°F or below, under a quarter of the freezing nights. A standard heat pump still makes heat at those temperatures, just a fraction of what it is rated for, which is why it leans on backup heat to cover the gap.

There is a version built for this. The ENERGY STAR Cold Climate heat pump has to prove it still makes 1.75 units of heat for every unit of electricity at 5°F, and hold onto 70 percent of its 47°F capacity at that temperature, checked by outside testing. In a two winter field test of cold climate units 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. If a heat pump is going into a house here, that is the one to ask about. A furnace built to the federal minimum has no such cliff. It makes its full rated heat whether it is 30°F outside or 10 below.

A navy blue single-family house with white trim and a snow-covered roof, flanked by snowy conifers, with a steep snow-covered mountain and clear blue sky behind it.

What it costs to run, and what fuel is already there

A furnace built to the federal minimum costs $1.26 to make 100,000 Btu of heat here. A standard heat pump costs $1.99 for the same heat, with nothing added for the backup heat it needs on the coldest nights. That gap holds because gas runs $10.09 per million Btu in Colorado and electricity runs $43.72, and it is before the heat pump's weakest nights are counted at all.

Heat runs ten months a year here, September through June. A cost difference that size does not show up for a few weeks and disappear. It is most of the year, every year.

Gas heats 45.6% of homes here, propane heats 16.2%, and electricity heats 30.8%. Which one already runs to your house is worth checking before pricing either machine.

There is essentially no cooling season here, no month warm enough to call for it. A furnace only heats, so cooling means pairing it with a central air conditioner. A heat pump already does both.

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 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.

Common questions about heat pumps and furnaces

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

    A standard heat pump struggles once it gets this cold. About 230 nights a year here drop to freezing or below, and every one of those nights is past the point where a standard heat pump's output falls short of its rating. A cold climate model is built to hold up better at single digits and below, but check for that rating specifically rather than assuming any heat pump will do it.

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

    Most likely, yes. Overnight lows here average 11°F in December, January and February, and a standard heat pump already falls short of its rated output below 40°F and often needs help below about 35°F. If you want the heat pump to run without backup even on the coldest nights, look for one with the ENERGY STAR Cold Climate rating, which has to hold at least 1.75 units of heat per unit of electricity at 5°F.

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

    Yes, that pairing is called a dual fuel or hybrid system, and it works well here. The heat pump carries the heat for the milder stretches of the ten months heat runs, and the furnace takes over once temperatures drop low enough that the heat pump can't keep up, which here starts around 35 to 40°F. Your furnace also still pairs fine with central AC if you ever add it, though Routt County has essentially no cooling season to speak of.

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

    No, a furnace costs less to run here. A gas furnace runs $1.26 per 100,000 Btu of heat against $1.99 for a heat pump, both at Colorado's average fuel prices. That gap doesn't include backup heat, which a heat pump here will likely need on its coldest nights, so the real difference in a Routt County winter runs wider than those two numbers alone show.

A person in a dark blue shirt, jeans and cap works with gloved hands on overhead piping above a furnace and sheet-metal ductwork in a basement with painted concrete block walls, a blue door and a tool bag on the floor.

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