Photo: alpha innotec on Unsplash
Ask "how much does a heat pump cost to run?" and the honest answer is: it depends mostly on where you live. Two factors dominate — the price of electricity and how many hours your climate needs heating and cooling. Equipment efficiency matters, but it's the third lever, not the first.
Electricity prices vary more than fourfold
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, residential electricity averaged 18.16¢ per kWh nationally in the latest month reported, but ranged from under 13¢ in states such as Louisiana and Nevada to more than 30¢ in Massachusetts and Maine, and over 47¢ in Hawaii. We use the latest EIA state averages on every page of this site.
Climate decides the hours
A heat pump in Minnesota spends most of its year heating; one in Florida spends most of its year cooling. We assign each state planning values for equivalent full-load heating and cooling hours, so the calculator can split the bill into a heating part and a cooling part. You can override them with your own numbers.
Why we normalise to 3 tons for rankings
Bigger units serve bigger houses and use more electricity in absolute terms. To rank models fairly on each state page we also compute a "3-ton equivalent" cost — what each model's efficiency would cost if it served the same 36,000 BTU/h load. That reveals which units are genuinely cheaper to run, independent of size.
Heat pump vs. other heating
Whether a heat pump beats gas, propane or oil depends on fuel prices in your state as much as on the heat pump. In states with expensive electricity and cheap natural gas, a dual-fuel setup (heat pump plus gas furnace backup) can be the lowest-cost option. In states with moderate electricity prices, or where the alternative is propane or oil, a heat pump usually wins on operating cost.
Pick your state from the state index to see the most economical models for your climate.