A heat pump costs less to run than a gas furnace in Georgia, but the margin is thin. In practice the house itself usually decides the question: whether it has a gas line, whether it has ducts, and whether the air conditioner is near the end of its life. The numbers below show how thin the margin is and where it flips.
The short answer for Georgia
Delivered heat, priced at Georgia’s average residential rates, comes out like this: the heat pump costs $19.01 per million Btu, and the 95% AFUE gas furnace costs $20.73. That puts the heat pump $1.72 per million Btu ahead. Electric resistance heat, the baseboard or electric furnace type, comes in at $45.13, far behind both. These figures are computed from U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) residential electricity and natural gas prices, ENERGY STAR efficiency levels, and standard EIA energy conversions.
A million Btu is just a common yardstick. It lets you line up electricity sold by the kilowatt-hour against gas sold by the cubic foot. It is not a yearly bill, because that depends on square footage, insulation, duct leaks and how warm you keep the house. It also says nothing about what the equipment and installation cost.
The heat pump figure uses the ENERGY STAR minimum for a ducted split system, 8.1 HSPF2, which works out to a seasonal coefficient of performance (COP) of about 2.4. A better unit would cost less to run than $19.01. The gas furnace figure uses 95% AFUE, already a high-efficiency model, so the furnace is not being handicapped.
The gap is $1.72, small enough that a different rate plan, a gas price swing or a more efficient furnace can erase it. If your furnace works and you have a gas line, the savings alone rarely justify replacing it; if you are replacing anyway, price a heat pump first.
What each option costs to run in Georgia
| System | Efficiency used | Cost per million Btu delivered |
|---|---|---|
| Electric resistance (baseboard) | 100% efficient | $45.13 |
| Heat pump | 8.1 HSPF2 (seasonal COP about 2.4) | $19.01 |
| Natural gas furnace | 95% AFUE | $20.73 |
Behind those rows is a residential electricity price of 15.40 cents per kWh. That is the average through July 2026, from the EIA’s Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.B. It is a statewide average, and your utility and rate plan may land above or below it. The gas side uses the EIA’s average residential natural gas price for Georgia, converted at about 1,037 Btu per cubic foot. Electricity converts at 3,412 Btu per kWh.
Efficiency matters as much as the fuel price because the two systems turn their fuel into heat in very different ways. Electric baseboard converts each kilowatt-hour into one kilowatt-hour of heat, and nothing more. A heat pump moves heat from outdoor air into the house, so each unit of electricity brings along more than one unit of heat. At a seasonal COP of about 2.4, that is what pulls electricity at 15.40 cents per kWh below the cost of gas. A 95% AFUE rating means 95% of the gas’s energy ends up as heat in the house and the rest goes up the flue.
Heat pump efficiency is labeled with HSPF2 for heating, and SEER2 covers cooling, so compare the same letter across quotes. ENERGY STAR sets the bar at 8.5 HSPF2 for non-ducted (ductless) split systems and 8.1 for ducted ones. A ductless unit has no duct losses to begin with, so it has to be better to earn the same badge. The HSPF2 breakdown covers why ductless asks for more. Ask your electric and gas utilities for current per-kWh and per-therm rates, and rerun the comparison with your own numbers.
How cold it gets, and what that does to a heat pump
At Atlanta Hartsfield, the reference city here, the climate normals for 1991-2020 show about 2,531 heating degree days a year (base 65°F). Each degree day counts one degree of mean temperature below 65°F for one day, summed over the year. A place with twice the degree days burns roughly twice the fuel for the same house. Heating season here is short and mild. The coldest month’s mean daily low is 35.6°F, though a single night can run colder than any monthly average.
A heat pump’s efficiency is not a constant. The 2.4 COP behind the $19.01 figure is a seasonal average. In deep cold, a heat pump’s output and efficiency fall, and a backup source (electric resistance strips or a gas furnace) carries the coldest nights. Where winters are long and harsh, those backup hours add up and shrink the heat pump’s advantage. How cold is too cold for a heat pump goes through how the drop-off works.
Metro Atlanta sits on the gentle end of that scale. A heat pump spends most of the winter near its efficient range, and the nights that push it hard are few. The table is therefore a reasonable picture of what a metro Atlanta house would see, and the backup strips will run only a small share of the season.
One caution: that reference city is a single station. A mountain county in north Georgia can run far colder than Atlanta, with more heating degree days and more backup use. In those counties, ask an installer how the unit performs at your area’s design temperature and what the backup will cost to run. In metro Atlanta, a heat pump’s seasonal efficiency holds up well; in the north Georgia mountains, size the backup before you trust the table.
What homes in Georgia already heat with
The EIA’s Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) 2020 state tables show that 60% of Georgia homes heat mainly with a furnace and 27% with a central heat pump. By fuel, natural gas is the main heating fuel in 47% of homes, electricity in 46% and propane in 5%. The survey does not publish a reliable estimate for steam or hot-water boilers or for fuel oil and kerosene, so there is no figure to quote for them. That is different from saying no one heats that way.
These shares describe what was installed, not what to buy. They do show that Georgia is split almost down the middle between gas and electric, so confirm which side your house is on before you compare anything. See heating a home in Georgia for how those pieces fit together across the state.
A house with no gas line changes the comparison completely. Gas is not an option without a new service connection, so the real choice is a heat pump against electric resistance or propane. Against resistance, the heat pump at $19.01 per million Btu is far cheaper than $45.13.
A house heated by a boiler and radiators has no ductwork for a heat pump to use, so the choice becomes new ducts or a ductless system. Ductless or central lays out that tradeoff.
When the other choice wins
Since the heat pump is cheaper to run on these numbers, the gas furnace is “the other choice” here. It wins in a few clear cases.
- A furnace with years of life left and a clean service record.
- A very cold north Georgia site where backup heat would run a lot.
- A dual-fuel setup, where the heat pump handles mild weather and the furnace takes over on the coldest nights.
The first is the most common. A working furnace costs nothing to keep, and the $1.72 per million Btu gap is small next to the price of replacing it. If it has become unreliable, repairing a furnace or replacing it walks through the decision. Dual-fuel suits houses that already have a gas line and want a hedge against both cold snaps and rate changes.
The heat pump wins easily wherever air conditioning matters. Atlanta Hartsfield logs about 2,051 cooling degree days a year, against 2,531 heating degree days, so cooling is nearly as big a job as heating. A heat pump does both, so replacing a worn-out air conditioner with one can remove the need for a furnace altogether. A gas furnace still needs a separate cooling system next to it. If your air conditioner is near the end of its life, price a heat pump before you replace it with another cooling-only unit.
Common questions
Is a heat pump cheaper to run than a gas furnace in Georgia?
On the computed numbers, yes: $19.01 per million Btu for the heat pump against $20.73 for a 95% AFUE gas furnace, a $1.72 difference. Your actual bill depends on the house, your utility’s rates and how the system is set up.
Does a heat pump keep up on the coldest Georgia nights?
In metro Atlanta, where the coldest month’s mean low is 35.6°F, most nights are well within a heat pump’s range. The coldest nights call on backup heat, either resistance strips or a furnace. In the north Georgia mountains, expect that backup to run more.
Is electric baseboard ever cheaper than either option?
No. At $45.13 per million Btu, resistance heat costs well over double the heat pump or the gas furnace. It makes sense only for a small space or a rarely used room where equipment cost matters more than running cost.
Should I replace a working gas furnace with a heat pump to save money?
The running-cost savings alone are small. Replacing a furnace that still works is usually better timed to the moment it fails, or to the moment your air conditioner needs replacing too. Then one heat pump covers both jobs, and the install cost comes out of a purchase you were making anyway.