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Heat pump vs furnace in Las Animas County, Colorado

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Pros who work in Las Animas County

Which costs less to run in Las Animas County?

A gray outdoor condenser unit with a top-mounted fan sits on a concrete pad beside a dark blue horizontal lap-sided wall, lit from above at night.

Heat pump

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

A beige gas furnace standing on a concrete basement floor against a dark blue wall, with galvanized metal flue ductwork above it and gas piping and a flexible conduit at its right side.

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.

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  • No gas line, nothing burning in the house

    A heat pump runs on electricity alone. Nothing burns inside the house.

    A kitchen with navy lower cabinets, white marble-look countertops, white subway tile backsplash and a stainless range hood, with a blue kettle on the cooktop, a wooden cutting board, potted plants, a utensil crock, and a marble island holding a blue mug and a wooden bowl of citrus.

  • 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 navy sofa, light blue and cream cushions and a fringed throw, a wooden coffee table with a tray and potted greenery, blue built-in bookshelves, and a large window looking onto a garden with trees and flowering shrubs.

Where does a furnace shine?

  • Strong, steady heat in hard cold

    Winter nights here average 20°F, December through February. A furnace burns gas to make heat, so it keeps putting out hot air at the same strength no matter how cold it gets outside.

    A two-story dark blue house with white trim and lit windows at dusk, with snow on the roof and ground and a shoveled path lined with small lanterns leading to the front door.

  • 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 windowed door showing snow outside, sheer curtain, winter boots on tile, a jute runner, and a wooden bench with a blue blanket, pillow, and mug beneath hanging coats and a bag.

  • Pairs with any central AC

    Most central air systems are built around a furnace. The two share the blower, the ducts and the thermostat.

    A sunlit room with wood plank flooring, a floor vent grille near a sheer white curtain, a dark blue sofa with a pale blue fringed throw, and a wooden stool holding a blue mug.

What winter here does to a heat pump

Your furnace question here really comes down to cold. The heat runs eight months a year in Las Animas County, October through May, and the overnight low averages 20°F across December, January and February. That average is built from about 155 nights at or below freezing, and a standard heat pump starts losing ground at 40°F and often needs backup heat below about 35°F. Twenty degrees is under both marks, and so is almost every one of those 155 nights.

That doesn't mean a heat pump quits. It means that on most winter nights here, it's running below the point where its heat output matches its rating, leaning on a backup heat source to make up the difference. A furnace has no such line to cross. It burns gas, makes heat, and that heat output doesn't fall off as it gets colder outside. On the 4 nights a year here that drop to 0°F or below, that difference matters most, though field tests of newer cold-climate heat pumps found backup heat carried only a small share of the load even in that range.

There's a version of a heat pump built for exactly this. The ENERGY STAR Cold Climate rating requires a heat pump to make at least 1.75 units of heat per unit of electricity at 5°F and hold onto 70 percent of its warm-weather capacity at that temperature, verified by outside testing. A heat pump carrying that rating is a different machine in a cold climate than the federal-minimum one the running-cost band is built on. If you're seriously weighing a heat pump for this county, that's the spec to ask about.

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What it costs to run, and what to pair it with

Running cost favors the furnace plainly. 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's at least 36 percent less to run, and it holds for all eight months the heat is on here. The heat pump figure also assumes no backup heat is needed, which the cold nights here argue against.

Fuel source matters too. Utility gas already heats close to half the homes in this county, 48.5 percent, and propane heats almost a quarter more. Electric heat, by contrast, heats only 15.6 percent of homes here, well under the statewide share of 25.6 percent. If your home already has a gas line in, a furnace keeps you on the fuel most of your neighbors use.

Summer is a smaller part of this decision here. Cooling runs three months, June through August, and only about 35 days a year reach 90°F or higher. A heat pump handles both heating and cooling in one system, which is worth something if you're replacing your air conditioner anyway. A furnace only heats, so if you go that way you're pairing it with a separate central air conditioner, same as most homes in this county already do.

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 blue single-story house with a snow-covered roof, white front door and railed steps, behind a plowed snowbank, with pine trees and snow-capped mountains in the background under a clear sky.

Common questions about heat pumps and furnaces

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

    It can, but a standard heat pump struggles on the coldest nights here. Below 40°F its output falls under its rating, and below about 35°F it often leans on backup heat, and the average winter low here is 20°F. A cold-climate model rated for 5°F holds up much further into the cold, but check what backup it's paired with for the handful of nights that reach 0°F.

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

    Most houses here will need it. Overnights average 20°F across December, January and February, well below the 35°F mark where a standard heat pump's efficiency drops and the 40°F mark where its output starts to fall short of its rating. Without backup, the heat pump is left to cover the coldest stretch of the year on its own.

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

    Yes, and here that pairing earns its keep. The heat pump carries the mild stretches and the furnace takes over on the roughly 155 nights a year that drop to freezing or below. You get a furnace that runs less and a heat pump that is never asked to make heat it can't deliver.

  • What if my house heats with oil or propane?

    About one in four houses here heat with propane, at $24.16 per million Btu against $10.09 for natural gas. A heat pump sized for this climate cuts that cost, since it runs on electricity at $43.72 per million Btu but turns each unit into several units of heat. Whether it beats propane on your bills depends on how the two prices compare where you live, so it's worth running the numbers for your house.

A person in a navy hooded sweatshirt, tan work pants and a knit cap kneels beside a furnace in a basement utility area, with sheet metal ductwork, PVC and copper piping overhead and a black tool bag on the concrete floor nearby.

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