Storms are frequent here
El Paso County saw 1,277 severe weather events between 2015 and 2024, including 717 hail events, 324 damaging wind events and 10 tornadoes. That is a lot of chances for an outdoor condenser to take a hit.
Heat Pump Installation in Colorado Springs, CO
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Step 1 of 3: Equipment
Outages last longer than a blink
13% of Colorado households went at least 24 hours without power in 2024. A heat pump needs power to run, so a long outage means no heat and no hot water from an electric system until the power comes back.
- 9 months
- September through May, your system heats
- 2 months
- July through August, it cools
- 17°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 83°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
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NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Hail hit El Paso County 717 times between 2015 and 2024, and wind did damage 324 times.
A heat pump installed here has to survive the outdoor unit's exposure to that, year after year.
Most homes here already run on gas, and that shapes how a heat pump gets added
Heat here runs nine months, September through May. That leaves June for getting a new system in before anyone needs it to do anything. Wait until August and you're asking for an install right as the first cold nights hit, with a crew trying to size and set up a heat pump while you're already reaching for the thermostat. Get it done in June instead, before cooling even starts in July, and there's no pressure on the schedule. A contractor can take the time to size the unit right and check the installation before it has to carry any load at all.
Plan the installation around the outages, not just the weather
A contractor can set the outdoor unit where flying debris is less likely to reach it and talk through surge protection as part of the install. Worth asking, too, how the system handles a power cut, since a heat pump won't run without it.
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This unit runs through every storm on that list
223 winter storms hit El Paso County between 2015 and 2024, and every one of them is a day the outdoor unit keeps pulling heat from cold air while snow or ice lands on it. That's normal work for a heat pump. But it adds hours to the compressor that a calmer climate wouldn't. Ask what load the unit is rated to carry here, not just what it costs upfront. A system sized for an easier place will run longer hours and show wear sooner than one sized for what this county actually sends its way.
The rating comes from a lab test, not your house
The number on the label gets measured at one set of conditions in a lab. It tells you how well the unit turns electricity into heat or cooling under that test. It doesn't know your thermostat setting, how well the ducts are sealed, or how often a door gets left open. Two homes running the same rated unit can land on different results.
A higher rating means the compressor has more ways to work
Heat pumps reach a higher rating by controlling the compressor and the airflow more closely, often with a variable-speed compressor instead of one that's just on or off. That lets the unit run at a lower output for longer stretches rather than switching fully on and off, which is gentler on the compressor over time. It also means more parts a contractor needs to check during service.
A heat pump has to be sized to the house, not picked off a shelf. Too big and it short-cycles, blasting heat or cold air then shutting off before it finishes pulling moisture out of the air or evening out the temperature room to room. Too small and it runs flat out without ever catching up on the coldest or hottest days. Getting it right starts with a load calculation, a room by room look at square footage, windows, insulation and ceiling height, not just a guess based on the size of the old unit. A contractor doing this right measures the house instead of matching the last system, because the last system may have been wrong too. The outdoor unit and the indoor coil also have to be matched to each other, since pairing mismatched equipment undercuts the sizing work no matter how carefully the load calculation was done.
Zone 5B is the energy code's label for this county, and it marks a place where heating carries most of the load. Any split-system heat pump installed here has to meet the federal minimum tied to that test, 14.3 for cooling and 7.5 for heating, the ratio of heat moved to electricity used. That floor applies everywhere, but what it means changes by zone, since a 5B system spends more of the year heating than cooling. Equipment sold new has to clear that bar already, so the real question for a homeowner isn't whether a unit qualifies. It's whether the one going in is sized and matched well enough to earn that rating in practice, not just on the label. A federal tax credit is available for qualifying equipment, worth asking about before the install is scheduled.
