Hello Heat Pump, $700 Savings in Year One

Heating Up the Hypothesis

Let's talk about home heating. It isn't the most glamorous topic. It is, however, incredibly important for both our wallets and the environment. We just completed our first winter with a heat pump, and we'll share the results here. We previously used a traditional natural gas furnace. I should clarify my terminology; "fossil gas" is a more accurate term than natural gas, so we'll use fossil gas for the rest of this discussion. The fuel primarily comes from ancient decomposed organic matter, after all. In the summer of 2025, we swapped out that old air conditioner for a sleek new heat pump. We still have a gas furnace, but now it only has to fire up on the coldest few hours of the winter, rather than running daily for 6 months of the year.  We tracked everything meticulously to compare the before-and-after. The data is fascinating. Let's dive in.

Wild Winter Weather Variations

We must acknowledge the weather. The weather always plays a big role in home heating. The winter of 2024/2025 was quite mild, and among the warmest we've had here in decades. The winter of 2025/2026 was even warmer. The best A/B test for a heat pump would be two very similar homes right next to each other, measured over the same winter. Here we have the second-best, a year-over-year comparison of the same house. Also, to this list of caveats, we must add that this analysis looks at our complete gas and electricity bills. It is not limited to just the electricity used by the heat pump or the fossil gas just used by the furnace, although these are the largest consumers of these resources in our home.

Winter 2025/26 set record highs in the US Pacific Northwest. We saw average temperatures hovering in the high 40s and low 50s F. We saw absolutely zero snow in the Willamette Valley. This warm weather undoubtedly helped our new heat pump perform efficiently. Heat pumps love mild winters. They pull ambient heat from the outside air. They compress it, and they pump it inside. Warmer outside air means less heating is needed and less work for the compressor.

Tracking the Therms and Watt-hours

Let's look at the raw numbers. We tracked our energy usage from October through April for both winters. The data shows a shift in our energy consumption. We saw a small increase in electricity use and a massive drop in fossil gas consumption. 

We used 668 therms of fossil gas during the 24/25 winter. We used only 124 therms during the 25/26 winter. That is an 81% reduction in fossil gas usage. We stopped burning things to stay warm on all but the coldest hours. Our electricity usage did go up. Heat pumps run on electricity. We used 7,522 kWh of electricity in 24/25. We used 9,336 kWh in 25/26. This is only a 24% increase in electrical consumption. 

In the 24/25 winter, our furnace ran for about 700 hours. Compared to our most recent winter, when it was just the heat pump backup, the furnace only ran for 60 hours. That's more than a 90% reduction.

Energy Big Picture Totals

To see the energy big picture, we'll convert the kWh and the therms to a common unit. We'll use gigajoules for this comparison. We used 98 gigajoules of total energy in the 24/25 season. We used only 47 gigajoules in the 25/26 season. That is a total energy reduction of 52%.

Metric	2024/2025 Winter	2025/2026 Winter	Change
Fossil Gas (Therms)	668	124	-81%
Electricity (kWh)	7,522	9,336	+24%
Total Energy (Gigajoules)	98	47	-52%

Financial Facts and Frivolity

The engineering is beautiful. Cutting our home's total energy use in half is amazing. It shows how efficient heat pumps are. They don't create heat. They just move it around. A completely different method from combustion. Efficiency is only part of the story. We live in the real world. We care about the monthly bills. Upgrading HVAC systems is expensive. We need to see a return on that investment. In our case, the financial results are highly encouraging. We saved a lot of money on our utility bills. The total savings for the winter came out to $701.67 USD. Keeping an extra $700 in the bank is a clear win. This shows that environmentally conscious choices can also be fiscally responsible. The upfront cost of the heat pump was high, but the AC needed to be replaced, and we received incentives from our state and utility. The operational savings will slowly repay that initial investment, and it means that we'll have lower utility bills every month going forward. This makes budget planning easier.

Experience and Engineering

It's more than CO2 reduction and lower bills; it's also a better daily experience. Our home felt comfortable all winter. Heat pumps provide a steady, consistent level of warmth. Old furnaces tend to blast hot air and then shut off. This creates noticeable too hot, too cold temperature swings. The heat pump, on the other hand, runs low and slow. It maintains a constant temperature without the dramatic spikes. We have an "inverter-driven" system. This means that the heat pump can operate anywhere from 40% to 100%. This keeps the temperature in the sweetspot for much more of the day, avoiding the big spikes. We're thrilled with the performance.

We're utilizing the basic principles of thermodynamics. We're capturing heat energy that already exists in the environment. A heat pump can do this even when it feels cold outside. There is still plenty of thermal energy in 40-degree (F) air. The heat pump concentrates it and delivers it to our living room. 

Practical Progress and Pragmatism

Heat pumps are fantastic machines. They aren't magic bullets, however. A heat pump is only as clean as the electricity that powers it. The US grid is slowly getting cleaner. We're adding more wind, solar, and hydroelectric power every year. As the grid cleans up, heat pumps become even better for the environment. Fossil gas furnaces will always burn fossil gas. An electric appliance improves its emissions profile as the power plant improves. Societal evolution is a slow, grinding process. We can't overhaul our entire infrastructure in a single year. We can make smart choices when old appliances break. If you install solar (or use community solar), your heating and cooling are powered by the sun, and it's insulated from changes in electricity prices. 

Concluding the Climate Calculation

Our winter experiment was a resounding success. We tested the technology under real-world conditions. We slashed our total energy consumption by 52%. We achieved an impressive 81% reduction in fossil gas usage. We also saved a nice chunk of change. Keeping an extra $700 is a good feeling. The transition was seamless. Our home was more comfortable than ever. The engineering is sound. We're realistic about the challenges ahead. Upgrading home infrastructure is expensive. Every newly installed heat pump is a step in the right direction. We're steadily marching toward a future free from fossil fuels.