Illinois Heating

Heat pump vs furnace in Adams County, Illinois

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Which costs less to run in Adams County?

An outdoor air conditioner condenser unit with a top fan grille sits on a concrete pad surrounded by gravel, next to dark horizontal siding with a wall-mounted disconnect box and refrigerant lines.

Heat pump

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

A beige residential furnace with louvered panels stands on a concrete basement floor against a dark blue painted block wall, with a galvanized metal flue pipe rising from its top and copper and steel pipes 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

    A heat pump runs long and low instead of blasting on and off. Rooms hold an even temperature all day.

    A dark blue armchair with an open book and gray fringed throw sits beside a lit fireplace and a lamp-topped side table, with a golden-colored dog curled asleep on a patterned rug and snowy trees beyond the window.

  • No gas line, nothing burning in the house

    There's no gas line to the unit and no flame anywhere in it. Carbon monoxide isn't part of the picture.

    A kitchen island with a white countertop holding a black induction cooktop, a stainless steel kettle, a blue mug, a bowl of lemons and a potted plant, with navy cabinets, a wood shelf with plants and books, cutting boards and a blue bowl in the background.

  • 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 blue sofa and navy cushion in front of a large three-pane window overlooking green trees, with a rustic wood coffee table, woven rug, navy cabinetry and bookshelves, a wall lamp, and potted plants.

Where does a furnace shine?

  • Runs on the gas most homes here already use

    Most homes in Adams County already heat with gas, so a gas furnace means hooking into a line that's probably already run to the house. That's one less thing to plan for when the system goes in.

    A row of attached townhouses with brick and painted facades, front stoops with black metal railings, and exterior gas meters, beside a sidewalk with patchy snow and bare trees.

  • 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 wood floor near a window with sheer white curtains and a blue paneled door at right.

  • 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 clean white pleated air filter in front of a basement furnace, ducting, and wooden shelves holding plastic bins and folded textiles.

What winter here does to a heat pump

Your furnace or heat pump here runs seven months a year, October through April, and the winters it has to handle are not mild. The overnight low averages 22°F across December, January and February. About 115 nights a year drop to freezing or below, over half the nights in the heating season. A standard heat pump starts falling short of its rated heat output below 40°F and often leans on backup heat below about 35°F. At 22°F, you are under both marks most winter nights, not just on the rare cold snap.

That doesn't mean a heat pump leaves you cold. About 6 nights a year reach 0°F or below, a small slice of the 115 freezing nights, and the deep cold that really tests a heat pump is rare here. Cold climate heat pumps carrying the ENERGY STAR mark are built and tested for this. One is required to still produce 1.75 units of heat per unit of electricity at 5°F, and to hold onto at least 70 percent of its 47°F capacity at that temperature. In a two-winter field test of prototype cold-climate models in occupied homes, backup heat covered only a small share of the heat needed between 0°F and 35°F, and running on backup alone was rare even above 0°F. So the question for your house is not whether a heat pump can handle an Adams County winter. It's whether the one you're pricing is a standard model or one built for this kind of cold.

A blue house entrance with a window-topped door, white trim and light blue railings, concrete steps partly covered in snow, a snow shovel leaning near the door, and snow-laden shrubs on both sides.

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

Run the two side by side on cost and the furnace wins outright. A gas furnace makes the same heat here for $1.33 per 100,000 Btu against $2.12 for a heat pump, at Illinois's average fuel prices, for machines built to the federal minimum. That's at least 37 percent less to run, and it holds for all seven months you're heating, not just the cold nights. A heat pump has to make up that gap somewhere else, in comfort, in not burning gas in the house, or in cooling the same system handles come summer.

What's already run to your house matters too. Utility gas heats 58.8% of homes in Adams County, close to three in five, while electricity heats 33.3%, about one in three. Illinois as a whole leans even harder on gas, at 75.3% of homes. If your house already has a gas line and a furnace, a heat pump means adding electric capacity and deciding what, if anything, backs it up on the coldest nights. If it's already electric, a heat pump is the more natural next system, and it covers your four months of cooling too, June through September, where a furnace does nothing the other five months of the year.

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 row of houses along a snowy street, with a blue clapboard house with a white porch and icicles in the foreground and brick houses behind it under a clear sky.

Common questions about heat pumps and furnaces

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

    It can, but not at full strength on the coldest nights. A standard heat pump puts out less than its rated capacity once it's below 40°F outside, and here the overnight low averages 22°F across December, January and February. Models with the ENERGY STAR Cold Climate mark are built to keep most of their capacity down to 5°F, which matters on the roughly 115 nights a year here that drop to freezing or below.

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

    Most homes here would want it. A standard heat pump's heating efficiency drops below about 35°F outside, and the overnight low here averages 22°F across December, January and February, with about 115 nights a year at or below freezing. Field tests of cold-climate heat pumps found backup heat supplied only a small share of the total heat and rarely ran alone above 0°F, which here happens on about 6 nights a year, so the backup source matters most on the coldest handful of nights rather than all winter.

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

    Yes, that's a dual fuel setup, and it's a common way to run a heat pump here. The heat pump carries the house most nights, and the furnace takes over once it gets too cold for the heat pump to keep up or run efficiently. With an average winter low of 22°F here, and 115 nights a year at or below freezing, your furnace would still have real work to do most winters.

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

    No, a furnace costs less to run here. A furnace makes the same heat for $1.33 per 100,000 Btu against $2.12 for a heat pump, at Illinois's average gas and electricity prices. That gap is built on the heat pump's seasonal rating alone and does not add anything for the backup heat it would use on the coldest nights, so running one here would likely cost more than the band shows.

A person in a dark blue shirt and black gloves uses a wrench on brass service valves and copper lines at the side of an outdoor air conditioning condenser unit, with a tool bag and a cordless drill on the mulch in the foreground.

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