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Is a heat pump worth it on your utility's rates?

When your AC or furnace fails, you have days to decide. See what each option costs to install and to run, priced on your own electric utility's tariff, your local weather and today's rebates.

  • Your utility's actual tariff
  • Nearest weather station
  • All 50 states and DC

How it works

Four real inputs. One number you can take to a contractor.

Most calculators plug in a state average and a national climate zone. Follow one real home through ours: a typical 1,800 sq ft house in ZIP 02115, Massachusetts, heated with gas, whose furnace and AC both need replacing.

  1. 1

    Your ZIP finds your utility

    Every ZIP code is matched to the utilities that serve it, then priced on that utility's own residential tariff: tiers, seasons and time-of-use, not a statewide guess.

    Example02115 → Eversource (NSTAR Electric)Greater Boston Residential R-1 (A1) tariff · extra winter kWh at 25.2¢ (state average 30.3¢)
  2. 2

    Your weather, month by month

    Heating and cooling need comes from the nearest NOAA station's 30-year normals, month by month, because a heat pump works harder in January than in March.

    Nearest stationJamaica Plain5,811 heating · 827 cooling degree days a yearJFMAMJJASOND

    HeatingCooling

  3. 3

    Your house sets the load

    Size and insulation turn the weather into the heat your home loses. Then each option's efficiency, including how a heat pump weakens in the cold, turns that into kWh and therms.

    1,800 sq ft, average insulation53 million Btu of heat a year≈ 555 therms of gas in a new furnace, or 4,862 kWh in a cold-climate heat pump (heating and cooling)
  4. 4

    Real costs over 15 years

    Installed-cost ranges from published studies, adjusted for local installer wages, minus rebates where we've checked them, plus 15 years of running costs.

    Typical installed price in Massachusetts$13,030 vs $9,045a new furnace and AC vs a high-efficiency cold-climate heat pump after $7,950 in rebates · running $1,760 vs $1,230 a year

The answer for this home

Up to $15,900 more

is how much higher the cold-climate heat pump quote can be than the furnace + AC quote and still cost less over 15 years.

A high-efficiency cold-climate heat pump comes out ahead here even with a high quote: about $11,900 less than a new furnace and AC over 15 years at typical prices, and $530 a year less to run.

Why your utility matters

Same house, same weather, different electricity price

State-average price30.3¢/kWh$360/yr less
Eversource (NSTAR Electric) tariff25.2¢/kWh in winter$530/yr less

Yearly running cost of the cold-climate heat pump compared with gas furnace + AC. Pricing extra kWh at the state average would understate the heat pump's yearly saving by $170: about $2,500 over 15 years.

Open this example Check my own ZIP Read the full method and sources

Estimates, not a quote. Example figures come from this site's own calculator, rebuilt every quarter from public data.

Choose your state

For each state: utilities where a heat pump is ahead at any quote, where it depends on your quotes, and where it's behind at any quote. Tags mark where our data is thinner.

Alabama

22 utilities

17 ahead5 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet

Alaska

5 utilities

2 ahead0 depends3 behind

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices
  • Remote areas not covered

Arizona

12 utilities

2 ahead10 depends

Arkansas

17 utilities

17 ahead0 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices

California

22 utilities

2 ahead20 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet

Colorado

22 utilities

0 ahead22 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices

Connecticut

5 utilities

4 ahead1 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet

Delaware

2 utilities

0 ahead2 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet

District of Columbia

1 utility

0 ahead1 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices

Florida

21 utilities

3 ahead18 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet

Georgia

34 utilities

17 ahead17 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet

Hawaii

4 utilities

0 ahead4 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Little heating need

Idaho

8 utilities

2 ahead6 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices

Illinois

15 utilities

0 ahead15 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices

Indiana

26 utilities

0 ahead26 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices

Iowa

12 utilities

0 ahead12 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices

Kansas

13 utilities

0 ahead13 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices

Kentucky

21 utilities

10 ahead11 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices

Louisiana

15 utilities

1 ahead14 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices

Maine

2 utilities

2 ahead0 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet

Maryland

6 utilities

3 ahead3 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices

Massachusetts

9 utilities

8 ahead1 depends

Michigan

14 utilities

0 ahead9 depends5 behind

  • Rebates not checked yet

Minnesota

21 utilities

4 ahead17 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices

Mississippi

20 utilities

8 ahead12 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices

Missouri

32 utilities

9 ahead23 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices

Montana

9 utilities

2 ahead7 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices

Nebraska

18 utilities

0 ahead18 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices

Nevada

5 utilities

0 ahead5 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet

New Hampshire

3 utilities

3 ahead0 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet

New Jersey

4 utilities

0 ahead4 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet

New Mexico

14 utilities

0 ahead14 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices

New York

7 utilities

1 ahead6 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet

North Carolina

26 utilities

23 ahead3 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices

North Dakota

15 utilities

3 ahead12 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices

Ohio

17 utilities

0 ahead17 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices

Oklahoma

21 utilities

2 ahead19 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices

Oregon

15 utilities

11 ahead4 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet

Pennsylvania

13 utilities

2 ahead11 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices

Rhode Island

1 utility

0 ahead1 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet

South Carolina

20 utilities

11 ahead9 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices

South Dakota

11 utilities

1 ahead10 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices

Tennessee

28 utilities

13 ahead15 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices

Texas

58 utilities

17 ahead41 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices
  • Partial city coverage

Utah

5 utilities

0 ahead5 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices

Vermont

2 utilities

2 ahead0 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet

Virginia

13 utilities

11 ahead2 depends

Washington

27 utilities

17 ahead10 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices

West Virginia

4 utilities

1 ahead3 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices

Wisconsin

15 utilities

3 ahead12 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet

Wyoming

7 utilities

0 ahead7 depends

  • Rebates not checked yet
  • Mostly average prices

Built on public data

  • U.S. Utility Rate Database (OpenEI)
  • U.S. Energy Information Administration
  • NOAA climate normals
  • U.S. Census Bureau
  • U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
  • Program rebate pages