Tips & Guides
Heat Pump vs. Furnace: Which Is Right for Your Seattle Home?
Puget Sound is close to the ideal climate for a heat pump, and the reason is simple: a typical winter here sees fewer than 40 hours below 25°F. A cold-climate inverter heat pump spends about 99% of the season running inside its high-efficiency band, which is exactly where it beats gas on operating cost.
The numbers for a standard 2,000 square foot Seattle house look roughly like this. A SEER2 17 / HSPF2 9 heat pump runs about $780 a year for combined heating and cooling at current Seattle City Light rates. A 96% AFUE gas furnace plus a builder-grade AC runs about $1,040 at current PSE gas rates, and gas has moved up faster than electricity in every one of the last five years.
Install cost is where people expect gas to win, and where the incentives change the math. PSE rebates run $1,500 to $2,400 on a qualifying ducted heat pump, and the federal 25C credit adds up to $2,000. That usually erases the difference between a heat pump install and a furnace-plus-AC install entirely, and often puts the heat pump ahead.
The furnace still wins in three cases. First, if your existing furnace is under eight years old and working, replacing it is not a payback project. Second, on very large or poorly insulated houses where the required heat pump capacity pushes you into a much more expensive tier of equipment. Third, if your panel is at capacity and a service upgrade would add several thousand dollars to the job.
One warning worth more than any of the rest: a heat pump that is oversized will short-cycle, dehumidify poorly and feel clammy in the shoulder seasons. Ask any contractor for the Manual J load calculation before you accept a size. If they quote a size off square footage alone, keep shopping.
