Illinois Heating

Heat pump vs furnace in Ogle County, Illinois

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Which costs less to run in Ogle County?

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

Heat pump

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

A beige furnace with louvered front panels stands on a concrete basement floor against a blue-painted block wall, with a galvanized metal flue pipe rising from its top and a bare bulb lit overhead.

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?

  • 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 beige sofa holding navy and light blue cushions and a dark knit throw, a wooden coffee table with a bowl, books and a mug, a jute rug, wooden sideboard with a lamp and plants, and a large window with linen curtains showing green garden foliage.

  • Steady, even comfort

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

    A dimly lit living room with a lit stone fireplace, a navy armchair holding an open book, a cushion and gray fringed throw, a brass table lamp and mug on a side table, and a golden retriever sleeping on a woven rug.

  • 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 with navy blue shaker cabinets, white subway tile backsplash, light stone countertops, a stainless range hood over a cooktop with a pale blue kettle, and an island holding a vase of white hydrangeas and a bowl of green apples with wooden stools.

Where does a furnace shine?

  • Strong, steady heat in hard cold

    Overnight lows here average 16°F in December, January and February. A furnace burns gas to heat the air, so it puts out the same hot blast from the register no matter how cold it gets outside.

    A dark-sided two-story house with lit windows and a small covered porch at dusk, fronted by a narrow shoveled path through deep snow, with bare trees and evergreens around it.

  • Runs on the gas most homes here already use

    Most homes in Ogle County already heat with utility 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 wood-sided houses with covered porches, concrete steps and metal railings along a snow-covered sidewalk in winter sunlight.

  • Fast, strong heat on demand

    The air coming from the vents feels genuinely hot. That's welcome on a freezing morning.

    An entryway with an open dark blue door showing snow outside, snow-covered boots on a slate tile floor, a wooden bench with a steaming enamel mug, hanging coats and a plaid scarf, and a sheer white curtain by a window.

Can a heat pump keep up with winter here

Your furnace here isn't just handling the odd cold snap. Heat runs eight months a year in Ogle County, October through May, and the overnight low averages 16°F across December, January and February. That's well below the two marks that matter for a heat pump: its output falls short of the rating once it's under 40°F outside, and it often needs backup heat once it's under about 35°F. The average winter night here sits below both.

About 140 nights a year drop to freezing or below, more than half the nights across the whole heating season. On every one of those nights, a standard heat pump is working below its rated capacity. About 14 nights a year reach 0°F or below, and that's where a standard heat pump struggles most, putting out only a fraction of what it's rated for.

There's a real version of this machine built for that cold. A heat pump carrying the ENERGY STAR Cold Climate label has to prove it still makes 1.75 units of heat per unit of electricity at 5°F, and holds onto at least 70 percent of its warm-weather capacity at that temperature, tested by someone other than the manufacturer. Field tests on prototype cold-climate heat pumps found backup heat covered only a small share of the load between 0°F and 35°F, and the system running on backup alone was rare even above 0°F. The furnace card above calls this strong, steady heat in hard cold for a reason: a standard heat pump can't promise that here. A cold-climate one can come closer.

A two-story dark blue clapboard house with white trim, shutters, and a light blue front door, fronted by a snow-covered yard, a cleared concrete walkway, a mailbox on a post, and bare trees under an overcast sky.

What it costs to run and what most houses already have

Set the cold-weather question aside and look at the bill. A gas furnace built to the federal minimum makes 100,000 Btu of heat here for $1.33. A heat pump built to that same minimum makes the same heat for $2.12, using Illinois's average electricity price and its own federal minimum seasonal rating, with nothing added for backup heat on the coldest nights. That's at least 37 percent more to run, and the real gap on the coldest nights is wider once backup heat kicks in.

Two in three homes in Ogle County already heat with utility gas. A little under one in five run on propane, which costs even more than electricity to make the same heat, $19.96 per million Btu against $46.51. Only about one in ten homes here heat with electricity now. If your house is already on a gas line, a furnace uses what's already run to the house. If it's on propane, the math that favors gas favors it even more.

A furnace only does one job. It heats your house for the eight months a year it's cold enough to need it, and sits unused the other four. A heat pump heats and cools from the same system, which matters here too: Ogle County runs cooling three months a year, June through August, with afternoons averaging 82°F. If central air is also on the list, a heat pump replaces that system as well as the furnace. A furnace solves the eight colder months for less money doing it. Which one wins depends on whether you're pricing a heating system or pricing a house that also needs an air conditioner.

Sources: NOAA nClimDiv · NOAA 1991–2020 seasonal normals · EIA SEDS 2024 · 10 CFR 430.32 · PNNL Building America guide · PNNL-37127 field study · ENERGY STAR product criteria · Census ACS 2020–2024

A two-story navy blue house with white trim, a columned front porch and light blue door, fronted by a snow-covered lawn and cleared walkway, with bare trees and neighboring houses on either side.

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 drops below 40°F outside, and only a fraction of that rating in the teens. Ogle County's winter overnight average is 16°F, and about 14 nights a year hit 0°F or below, so a heat pump here needs help on the coldest nights, whether from a cold-climate model built to hold its output or from backup heat.

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

    Most homes here would want it. A standard heat pump's efficiency drops below about 35°F and its heat output falls short of its rating below 40°F, and every one of Ogle County's roughly 140 freezing nights a year falls below both marks. A cold-climate heat pump narrows that gap, since the ENERGY STAR Cold Climate rating requires keeping at least 70 percent of its 47°F heating capacity down at 5°F, but even those units are commonly installed with a backup source for the coldest stretches.

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

    Yes, and in Ogle County that pairing makes sense. The heat pump handles the milder nights on its own, then the furnace takes over once it gets into the range where a heat pump's output falls short of its rating. With a 16°F average overnight low here across the winter, your furnace would still have real work to do most nights.

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

    No, a furnace runs cheaper here. Heating with a furnace costs $1.33 per 100,000 Btu against $2.12 for a heat pump, both priced at Illinois's average fuel costs. That gap is why gas heats about two in three homes in Ogle County while electricity heats a little over one in ten.

Gloved hands attach a hose with brass fittings to the service valves of a gray outdoor air conditioning condenser on a concrete pad, with a tool roll holding a wrench, screwdrivers, pliers and brass fittings on gravel in the foreground.

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