Illinois Heating

Heat pump vs furnace in McLean County, Illinois

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Pros who install both

Which costs less to run in McLean County?

A gray outdoor condenser unit with a top-mounted fan sits on a concrete pad against dark blue horizontal lap siding at night, with a wall-mounted disconnect box and refrigerant lines to its right.

Heat pump

To heat your home here$2.12per 100,000 Btu

A beige sheet-metal furnace with a louvered lower panel stands on a concrete floor against a dark blue painted concrete block wall, with metal ductwork, a flue pipe, gas piping and an electrical box above and beside it.

Furnace

To heat your home here$1.33per 100,000 Btu

At Illinois's gas and electricity prices, a gas furnace makes the same heat as a heat pump for at least 37% less.

Btu stands for British thermal unit, the standard measure of heat energy.

Where does a heat pump shine?

  • Steady, even comfort

    Instead of short bursts of heat, it keeps a gentle, steady output going. The house stays at one comfortable temperature.

    A golden retriever sleeps on a cream shag rug in a dim living room with a lit wood stove, an armchair with a blue throw and open book, a lamp and mug on a side table, built-in bookshelves, and a window showing snowy evergreens.

  • 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 gray sofa holding navy and pale blue pillows and a navy fringed throw, a rustic wood coffee table with a woven tray and hydrangeas in a white vase, a navy built-in bookshelf at left, and large windows showing green trees and flowering shrubs.

  • No gas line, nothing burning in the house

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

    Kitchen with white subway tile backsplash, stainless range hood, a stainless kettle on a black cooktop set in a light countertop above navy cabinets and a wall oven, with a potted plant, utensil crock and wooden cutting board nearby and a dining area with pendant light in the background.

Where does a furnace shine?

  • Strong, steady heat in hard cold

    Overnight lows in McLean County average 20°F through December, January and February. A furnace puts out the same hot air no matter how cold it gets outside, so those nights don't ask anything extra of it.

    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 McLean County already heat with gas, so the line running to your house is probably already there. A furnace just uses what's already hooked up.

    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.

  • Proven, simple, easy to get serviced

    Parts are easy to find and most repairs are routine. Getting one fixed rarely means waiting on a specialist.

    A gloved hand holds a white pleated air filter in a basement utility area with a furnace, ductwork, and wooden shelves holding storage bins, folded blue fabric, a potted plant, and a woven basket.

What the cold does to a heat pump here

Winter here is the real question, because heating runs about eight months a year and cooling only four. A furnace built for this county only has to handle one of those jobs. A heat pump has to handle both, and the harder one is the one it struggles with.

Below 40°F a standard heat pump puts out less heat than its rating says, and below about 35°F it usually needs backup heat to make up the difference. The average overnight low here in December, January and February is 20°F. That's not an occasional dip below those marks, it's below both of them on a normal winter night.

Count the nights instead of the average and the picture holds. About 135 nights a year here drop to freezing or below, more than half of the nights across the eight months the heat runs. Every one of those nights is cold enough to push a standard heat pump past the point where it needs help to keep up.

A cold-climate heat pump, the kind certified to ENERGY STAR's Cold Climate standard, is built for exactly this. To earn that label it has to make at least 1.75 units of heat per unit of electricity at 5°F and hold on to at least 70 percent of its warm-weather capacity at that temperature, checked by outside testing. A field test of prototype cold-climate units over two winters found backup heat carried only a small share of the load between 0°F and 35°F, and the units rarely ran on backup alone unless it dropped below 0°F.

That matters here because the deep cold is rare. Of the 135 nights a year at or below freezing, only about 9 reach 0°F. A cold-climate heat pump is sized for nights like those nine. A standard one is not, and will lean on backup heat through most of the freezing nights, not just the coldest ones.

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What each one costs to run, and what's already in the house

Run the two machines on Illinois's actual fuel prices and the furnace is cheaper to operate: $1.33 per 100,000 Btu against $2.12 for the heat pump, both at the federal minimum efficiency for their type. That's the furnace making the same heat for at least 37 percent less. The heat pump's number also assumes no backup heat ever kicks in, which the cold nights here make unlikely for a standard unit.

What's already running the house counts too. Utility gas heats a little over two in three homes in McLean County, electricity about one in four. A furnace runs on the fuel most of the county already has piped in. A heat pump runs on electricity alone, which simplifies the house in one way, heating and cooling from a single system, but moves the entire load onto electric rates that cost more here per unit of heat.

None of this tells you what's run through your own walls now, or whether a gas line is already there to use. That's worth checking before deciding, since it changes what installing either option actually involves.

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 steps and white railings lead to a navy blue front door on a light blue clapboard house, with a snow shovel leaning against the wall beside the door.

Common questions about heat pumps and furnaces

  • Can a heat pump heat a house through an Illinois winter?

    Yes, but a standard heat pump won't carry the whole winter on its own here. Its output falls short of its rating once it's below 40°F outside, and the overnight low here averages 20°F across December, January and February. That's why most installs here pair it with backup heat, or use a furnace alongside it, for the coldest stretch.

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

    Most homes here need it. A standard heat pump's efficiency drops below about 35°F outside, and over half the nights the heat runs here, about 135 of 245, sit at or below freezing. A cold-climate model built to the ENERGY STAR spec holds more of its capacity down to 5°F, which cuts how much backup heat it needs, but the choice is still there to make.

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

    Yes, that setup is called a dual fuel system. The heat pump does the heating most days, and the furnace kicks in for the cold stretch where the heat pump's output falls short, below about 40°F outside. Keeping the furnace instead of backup electric strips also means the backup heat runs on gas, the fuel most homes here already have.

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

    No, a gas furnace runs cheaper here. At Illinois's prices, a gas furnace makes 100,000 Btu of heat for $1.33, against $2.12 for a heat pump built to the federal minimum. That gap comes from how much more natural gas costs per unit of heat delivered than electricity does here, not from either machine running poorly.

A person's arm in a light blue shirt reaches to adjust a round white and black thermostat mounted on a dark blue wall, with a living room containing a houseplant, television and wooden console visible through a doorway and a tool bag with screwdrivers on the floor below.

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