Heat Pump Vs Furnace: Which is Better?

February 20, 2016

There are mainly 3 kinds of popular home heating devices, heat pumps, furnaces and boilers. All of them have their pros and cons.

We have already discussed the pros and cons of boilers in this post. Therefore, today we will only discuss the pros and cons of furnaces and heat pumps.

After you finish reading this post and the post on boilers it will be easy to decide whether you should purchase a furnace, heat pump or boiler…

Pros and cons of a heat pump

Pros

1. The biggest pro of a heat pump is that it is economical. This is because it doesn’t heat air and then circulate it inside the house like a furnace does. It merely absorbs the hot air present outside the house and pumps it in. Heating air from scratch is expensive. As this process is absent in a heat pump you will have lower operating costs.
2. You don’t need to purchase an AC too. Most homes will require a furnace to keep the home warm during the winter and an AC to keep the home cool during the summer. But a heat pump will do both jobs hence you don’t need to invest in an AC too. During the summer it will pump out the heat in the house and reduce indoor temperature.

Cons

1. The only problem with heat pumps is that they aren’t as effective during extremely chilly nights. When it is too cold and there is no hot air to pump into the house it wont be able to do its job. Hence you will require an extra heater to assist it and keep the house warm.

Pros and cons of a furnace

Pros

1. The biggest pro of a furnace is that it is very effective. No matter where you live, it has the ability to supply enough heat to keep your house warm.
2. Heat pumps only run on electricity whereas furnaces can run on various resources like electricity, natural gas and oil. This gives you options.

Cons

1. The main con with furnaces is that they are expensive to operate. As aforementioned it requires a lot of resources to heat air.

These are all the pros and cons of heat pumps and furnaces. If you have read the entire article and the article on boilers you should be able to make your decision on what to purchase now.