Electric vs Gas Heating Cost

“Is a heat pump cheaper than gas?” has no universal answer — it depends on four local numbers: your gas price, your electricity price, the furnace’s AFUE and the heat pump’s COP. The only fair way to compare a therm of gas with a kilowatt-hour of electricity is to convert both to the same unit of delivered heat: dollars per million BTU ($/MMBTU). This tool does exactly that and tells you which is cheaper on your rates.

Both fuels lose something between purchase and useful heat: the furnace throws away flue losses (captured by AFUE), while the heat pump multiplies its electricity by the COP. Feeding in your real prices and efficiencies removes the guesswork — and because there are no stored tariffs, the comparison stays valid whenever prices move; just re-enter them.

What the comparison does and does not include

This compares operating cost only. It says nothing about install cost, equipment life, comfort or emissions, and it uses a single COP rather than a whole-season average — a heat pump’s real seasonal cost blends many temperatures. For a fuller picture, rank every option (electric resistance, heat pump, gas, propane, oil) with $/MMBTU by fuel, and read the heat pump vs gas furnace and dual-fuel guides.

Gas and combustion work stay in professional hands regardless of what the math favors: improper installation or venting risks fire and carbon-monoxide poisoning, so use a licensed installer and keep CO alarms in the home.

A practical way to use the result is to find your own crossover. Try the tool at your mild-weather COP, then again at a cold-morning COP, and note where the heat pump’s $/MMBTU rises past your gas figure. That temperature is your economic balance point: above it, run the heat pump; below it, the furnace (or backup) is cheaper. A dual-fuel system automates exactly this handoff, and the balance-point tool estimates the crossover directly from your rates and efficiencies.