Illinois Heating

Heat pump vs furnace in Tazewell County, Illinois

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Pros who work in Tazewell County

Which costs less to run in Tazewell County?

An outdoor air conditioning condenser unit on a concrete pad at night, lit from above, beside a dark horizontal lap-sided wall with an electrical disconnect box and conduit, with gravel on the ground.

Heat pump

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

A beige sheet-metal furnace with louvered access panels stands against a dark blue painted basement wall on a concrete floor, with metal flue ducts rising from its top and gas piping along the wall.

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 navy upholstered armchair with ottoman, open book and throw blanket sits beside a lit fireplace and white built-in bookshelves, with a golden-colored dog lying on a gray rug and snow visible through the window.

  • 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 navy blue cabinets, white marble-look counters and backsplash, a stainless steel kettle on a black cooktop under a range hood, a potted plant, bowl of lemons, wooden utensils and cutting board, and a light blue mug on a foreground island beside a sink.

  • 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 cream sofa holding navy and light blue pillows and a blue throw, a wood-and-metal coffee table with books, a pitcher and potted plant, a jute rug, a navy built-in bookshelf at left, and a large window showing green trees and shrubs.

Where does a furnace shine?

  • Runs on the gas most homes here already use

    Most homes in Tazewell County, 73.2%, already heat with gas. If yours is one of them, a gas furnace just hooks into the line that's already run to the house.

    A row of brick houses with covered porches and light blue railed front steps along a snow-lined sidewalk, with a person in dark clothing walking away in the distance under bare trees.

  • 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 metal floor vent set into a hardwood floor beside sheer white curtains billowing near a sunlit window.

  • 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 door and sheer curtain showing snow outside, snow-dusted black winter boots and brown suede boots on a patterned rug, a floor air vent, and a wooden bench holding a steaming mug and a light blue fringed blanket.

Can a heat pump keep up 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 20°F across December, January and February. That's the number that matters for this choice, because a standard heat pump starts falling short of its rated heat output below 40°F, and often needs backup heat below about 35°F. An average night here sits below both marks.

About 125 nights a year here drop to freezing or below, roughly half of the nights the heat is running. That's not a few cold snaps. That's most of the winter spent in the range where a standard heat pump is working harder than its rating suggests and may be leaning on backup heat to make up the difference. Only about 8 nights a year reach 0°F, so the brutal cold is rare, but the mild-freezing-to-20°F range it lives in all winter is the norm, not the exception.

This is where the cold climate models change the math. Built and tested to hold at least 70 percent of their 47°F output down at 5°F, and to keep making heat at a real efficiency instead of just running backup strip heat, they close most of the gap a standard heat pump opens up here. Field testing on these units in occupied homes backs that up: backup heat carried only a small share of the load even between 0°F and 35°F, and running on backup alone was rare except right at 0°F. If a heat pump goes into this house, this is the category it has to come from.

A two-story navy blue house with white trim, a light blue front door and small covered porch, surrounded by snow-covered lawn and bare trees, with a cleared concrete walkway leading to the steps.

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

Run the numbers at Illinois's own prices and gas wins plainly. A furnace makes the same heat for $1.33 per 100,000 Btu against $2.12 for a heat pump built to the federal minimum, a 37 percent gap that holds for all eight months the heat runs. Add in that heating is the longer season here, eight months against four for cooling, and that gap has a lot of months to compound.

It also matches how this county already heats. Utility gas heats about three in four homes here, electricity about one in five. A furnace runs on the fuel most of your neighbors already have piped in. A heat pump means running the house on electricity for its biggest energy draw of the year, which is a bigger shift if your home was not already set up for it.

The furnace's limit is just as real: it only heats. Those other four months, June through September, it has nothing to do, and the air conditioning is a separate system regardless. A heat pump does both jobs with one piece of equipment in the yard. If keeping a gas furnace and a central AC as two systems, running on the fuel already in the house, at the lower cost per Btu, suits this house, that is the case for a furnace here. If one system that heats and cools, with nothing burning indoors, is worth paying more per Btu for, that is the case for a heat pump, and a cold climate model is the one built for a winter like this one.

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 two-story houses with brick lower walls, white porches and blue or light blue siding, behind deep snowbanks along a cleared sidewalk under a clear sky with bare trees.

Common questions about heat pumps and furnaces

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

    Yes, but not at full strength on the coldest nights. A standard heat pump's output falls below its rating once it's under 40°F outside, and your average overnight low across December through February is 20°F. Every one of the roughly 125 nights a year here that drop to freezing or below falls under that mark, which is why a cold climate model or backup heat matters more here than in a milder spot.

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

    Most homes here will want it. A standard heat pump's efficiency drops below about 35°F outside, and the overnight low here averages 20°F across the winter, with about 125 nights a year at or below freezing. An ENERGY STAR Cold Climate heat pump holds onto more of its capacity at low temperatures, but check what any system you're considering is rated down to before deciding you can skip backup entirely.

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

    Yes, and here that pairing makes sense. The heat pump carries the mild months on its own, and the furnace switches in once it gets cold enough that the heat pump needs backup, which here is below about 35°F. Your gas line already feeds about three in four homes in the county, so a furnace to pair with is often already in place.

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

    No, a gas furnace runs cheaper here. At Illinois's average fuel prices a furnace makes the same heat for $1.33 per 100,000 Btu against $2.12 for a heat pump, and that heat pump figure doesn't add anything for the backup heat it will likely need on the roughly 125 nights a year here that drop to freezing or below.

A person in a dark blue shirt, jeans and cap works with gloved hands on overhead piping above a furnace and sheet-metal ductwork in a basement with painted concrete block walls, a blue door and a tool bag on the floor.

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