Illinois Heating

Heat pump vs furnace in Woodford County, Illinois

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Which costs less to run in Woodford County?

An outdoor air conditioning condenser unit on a concrete pad beside a dark horizontal-sided wall, with a conduit and electrical disconnect box above it, photographed at night.

Heat pump

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

A beige residential furnace with louvered front panels stands in a basement corner with dark blue painted walls, connected to a galvanized metal flue pipe and flanked by vertical pipes, lit by a bare ceiling bulb.

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 woven rug in a living room with a navy plaid armchair holding an open book and a gray fringed throw, beside a dark fireplace, potted plants, a lit table lamp and mug, and a frosted window at night.

  • 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.

    A kitchen with a navy blue island topped by a white stone counter holding a black induction cooktop, a white kettle, green apples on a wooden tray and a blue striped towel, with pale grey cabinets, a window, a potted plant and a wooden stool nearby.

  • 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 cream sectional sofa with navy and light blue cushions and a fringed blue throw sits beneath a white-framed window overlooking green garden foliage, with a rustic wooden coffee table holding a vase of flowers, a blue mug on a book, and a wooden bowl, beside a dark blue built-in cabinet.

Where does a furnace shine?

  • Strong, steady heat in hard cold

    Winter nights here average 19°F, and a furnace puts out hot air from the first cycle through the coldest stretch. It doesn't slow down or work harder as the temperature drops outside.

    A two-story dark blue clapboard house with a white covered porch and lit windows at dusk, surrounded by deep snow, bare trees and small lit evergreens.

  • Runs on the gas most homes here already use

    Gas heats 65.6% of homes in Woodford County, so most houses here already have the line run to them. If yours is one of them, a gas furnace just hooks into what's already there.

    A sidewalk beside a pale blue clapboard house with concrete front steps, a black metal handrail, a gas meter, bare shrubs, and melting snow along the strip, with a distant person walking on the sidewalk.

  • 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 dark blue door and snowy trees outside, snow-dusted winter boots and smaller boots on a patterned rug, a floor vent, a sheer blue curtain, a white bench with a wicker basket, a fringed plaid throw, a steaming mug, and coats hanging on the wall.

What the cold does to a heat pump here

Winter here is long and it gets genuinely cold. The heat runs eight months a year, October through May, and the overnight low averages 19°F across December, January and February. About 130 nights a year drop to freezing or below, over half the nights in the heating season. About 9 nights reach 0°F.

A standard heat pump starts losing ground before it gets anywhere near that cold. Below 40°F it puts out less heat than its rating says. Below about 35°F it typically needs backup heat to keep up. Woodford County's average winter low of 19°F sits under both marks, and every single one of those 130 freezing nights does too. This is not a county where a standard heat pump spends most of winter in its comfort zone. It spends most of winter working below it.

That does not mean a heat pump can't heat a house here. Cold climate models, the ones carrying the ENERGY STAR Cold Climate mark, are built and tested to still produce real heat at 5°F, at least 1.75 units of heat per unit of electricity, and to hold onto most of their rated capacity at that temperature. Field testing on prototypes of this kind found backup heat carried only a small share of the load between 0°F and 35°F, and running on backup alone was rare even above 0°F. A cold climate heat pump and a standard one are not the same proposition in this county. If a heat pump is on the table here, which one matters.

Snow-covered front steps and white railings lead to a dark navy door with a nine-pane window on a light blue clapboard house, with a snow shovel leaning beside the door and snow-laden shrubs on either side.

What it costs to run, and what the house already has

Run the numbers at Illinois prices and the furnace wins on cost. A heat pump built to the federal minimum makes 100,000 Btu of heat for $2.12 here. A gas furnace built to the same minimum standard makes that same heat for $1.33. That is natural gas at $10.64 per million Btu against electricity at $46.51 per million Btu, and it holds for an average winter night, not just a mild one.

What is already run to the house matters too. Utility gas heats about two out of three homes in Woodford County, the common setup here. Propane heats a little over one in ten. Electric heat, the resistance kind or a heat pump, is what the remaining one in five homes use. A furnace in a home with a gas line already run to it is usually a straightforward swap. A heat pump in a home with no gas line and no existing ductwork built for one is a different job, and a bigger one.

Summer is the other half of the year that a furnace has nothing to do with. Cooling runs four months here, June through September, and a furnace only heats, so a separate AC unit still has to be bought, installed and serviced alongside it. A heat pump does both jobs on one set of equipment, same ducts, same outdoor unit, no second system to maintain. In a county where winter asks more of the equipment than summer does, that convenience has to be weighed against what a standard heat pump gives up once the temperature drops, and what a cold climate one costs to get instead.

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

A row of houses along a snow-lined street, with a brick house with blue shutters and icicles on its gutter in the foreground and a light blue sided house beside it under a clear sky.

Common questions about heat pumps and furnaces

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

    A standard heat pump will keep running all winter, but it won't do it alone here. Below about 40°F it puts out less than its rated heat, and below about 35°F it often needs backup. The overnight low here averages 19°F across December, January and February, so most winter nights fall under both marks.

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

    Most houses here will need it. The average overnight low in winter is 19°F, well below the roughly 35°F point where a standard heat pump's efficiency drops and it leans on backup heat. Of the about 130 nights a year that hit freezing or below, only about 9 reach 0°F, so backup heat here mostly means making up the gap on the cold nights, not replacing the heat pump.

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

    Yes, and it's a common setup. The heat pump handles the mild days, then the furnace takes over once it gets cold enough that the heat pump can't keep up on its own. Paired this way, the furnace is really your backup heat rather than your main source.

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

    No, a gas furnace costs less to run here. At Illinois's average prices, a furnace makes the same heat for $1.33 per 100,000 Btu against $2.12 for a heat pump, so the furnace runs at least 37% cheaper. Gas already heats about two in three homes in Woodford County, which is part of why that gap shows up here.

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