Illinois Heating

Heat pump vs furnace in Macon County, Illinois

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Which costs less to run in Macon County?

A gray outdoor condenser unit with a top-mounted fan grille sits on a concrete pad beside a dark blue horizontal lap-siding wall at night, with a disconnect box and conduit on the wall above it.

Heat pump

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

A beige sheet-metal furnace stands on a concrete floor against a dark blue painted wall, with a metal flue pipe and a white PVC pipe rising from its top.

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

    It eases up and down with the weather. There are fewer swings between too warm and too cool.

    A dimly lit living room with a light blue armchair holding an open book and a navy knit throw, beside a lit table lamp, a navy built-in bookshelf, a fireplace with candles on the mantel, a snow-covered view through a window, and a light-colored dog curled asleep on a woven rug.

  • 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.

  • No gas line, nothing burning in the house

    It moves heat instead of making it from fire. That means no combustion, no flue and no gas bill for heat.

    Kitchen interior with white upper cabinets, navy lower cabinets, stainless range hood over a cooktop, white subway tile backsplash, and a light countertop island holding a bowl of lemons and a vase of white hydrangeas.

Where does a furnace shine?

  • Runs on the gas most homes here already use

    Most homes in Macon County already have gas line run to them, since gas heats about 73.5% of houses here. A furnace just uses what's already coming into the house.

    A row of wood-sided houses along a snowy sidewalk, with concrete front steps, metal handrails, and an exterior gas meter with pipes mounted on a light blue clapboard wall.

  • Fast, strong heat on demand

    Turn the heat up and the furnace answers right away. There's no long wait for the house to catch up.

    An entryway with a navy glass-paned door showing snow outside, snow-dusted boots on a woven jute rug, a wooden bench with a steaming blue mug, sheer curtains by a window, and a floor vent in the slate tile.

  • Pairs with any central AC

    A furnace's blower and ducts carry cooled air too. Adding central AC uses the same system.

    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.

What winter here does to a heat pump

Winter nights in Macon County average 22°F. That's below both marks that matter for a heat pump. Below 40°F, a standard heat pump stops putting out its full rated heat. Below about 35°F, it usually needs backup heat to make up the difference. Your average night is below both marks, not just on the coldest nights of the year.

This isn't rare here. About 110 nights a year fall to freezing or below, about half the nights across the seven months you run heat. On every one of those nights, a standard heat pump is working below both marks. The running-cost figures already account for this: $2.12 to make the same heat a furnace makes for $1.33, with nothing added for backup heat at all.

The real cold, the kind that reaches 0°F, only happens about 4 nights a year, a small part of the 110. Field testing on cold-climate heat pumps in occupied homes found backup heat supplied only a small share of the heat between 0°F and 35°F, and running on backup alone was rare even at 0°F. So the four coldest nights are not where a heat pump struggles most. The 110 nights at or near freezing are, because that is where it is working hardest, most often.

A row of two-story houses with covered front porches, snow-covered roofs and icicles along a snowy street, with a bare deciduous tree at left under a clear blue sky.

What that means for your choice

If you want a heat pump anyway, for the steady heat or for having one system that heats and cools, look for the ENERGY STAR Cold Climate label. That designation requires the unit to hold at least 70 percent of its 47°F heating capacity at 5°F, and still produce 1.75 units of heat per unit of electricity at that temperature, checked by outside testing. A standard heat pump is not built or tested to that mark.

On cost, a gas furnace wins here. It makes the same heat for at least 37 percent less, burning the fuel about three in four homes in the county already heat with. A furnace only heats, though, and has nothing to do the other five months of the year. A heat pump works both seasons, heating all winter and cooling all summer, which matters if your air conditioner is also due.

So the choice comes down to what matters more to you. Lowest running cost, with the fuel most of your neighbors already use: that's a furnace, paired with central air. One system for both seasons, worth paying more to run: that's a heat pump, but given 22°F average lows and 110 freezing nights a year, it should be a cold-climate one, not a standard one.

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 two-story navy blue house with white trim, a light blue front door and brick chimney, fronted by a snow-covered lawn, cleared walkway, and bare trees under an overcast sky.

Common questions about heat pumps and furnaces

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

    A standard heat pump can, but not on its own through the coldest nights. Below about 35°F it often needs backup heat, and below 40°F it puts out less than its rated capacity, with only a fraction left once temperatures reach the teens. About 110 nights a year here drop to freezing or below, so that shortfall shows up often.

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

    Most likely, yes. A standard heat pump's output drops below 40°F and it often needs backup once it's under about 35°F, and the overnight low here averages 22°F across December, January and February. About 110 nights a year fall at or below freezing, so backup heat would get used.

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

    Yes, and here that often means the furnace runs as the backup heat. A standard heat pump's output falls below its rating once it's under 40°F outside, and it often needs backup once it's under about 35°F. The average overnight low here is 22°F, so the furnace would still have real work to do.

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

    No. A gas furnace runs $1.33 per 100,000 Btu here against $2.12 for a heat pump, so the furnace costs less to make the same heat. That gap is why about three in four homes in Macon County heat with gas.

A person's arm in a dark blue shirt reaches to adjust a round wall-mounted thermostat on a pale blue wall, with a living room containing a leather sofa, lamp and coffee table behind, and an open tool bag on the wood floor below.

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