Resistance Heat To Heat Pump Calculator

This calculator weighs keeping your electric resistance heat against replacing it with a heat pump. Enter the electricity you use for heating in a year, pick the new heat pump from the ENERGY STAR list or enter its HSPF2, and choose whether to keep your old heaters as backup. It works out the heat your home needs, each system's yearly electricity use and cost, the yearly saving, the net cost of the heat pump, the simple and discounted payback, and the cost over the years you choose of keeping the old system, replacing it now, or replacing it when it wears out.

Equipment and climate figures come from federal sources only: ENERGY STAR (EPA), DOE standards and test procedures, NOAA climate normals and EIA electricity prices. You set the installed price; the opening example and each worked example carry a round illustrative price, labelled as such.

Purpose and model boundary

This calculator compares two ways to heat a home with electricity: keep your electric resistance heat (baseboards, wall heaters or an electric furnace), or replace it with a heat pump. It turns the electricity you use for heating into the heat your home received, works out the electricity a heat pump needs to deliver the same heat, prices both at your electricity price, and sets the yearly saving against what the heat pump costs installed. Over the number of years you choose, it compares keeping the old system, replacing it now and, when you say how many years the old system has left, replacing it when it wears out.

Every figure on this page is computed by the spreadsheet; the page adds nothing to it. It covers the running cost of space heating and the purchase cost only. Cooling from the new heat pump is not credited, and adding ducts or ductless units is not modelled.

Inputs and units

• Your heating electricity: the electricity you use for heating in a year, in kWh. From your bills, take the winter months' use minus your typical use in months with no heating.
• The new heat pump: choose its type (ducted split, ductless mini or multi-split, or single package), then the model from that type's ENERGY STAR list, where each entry reads "Brand | Outdoor model"; or enter the HSPF2 from its AHRI certificate. You may also enter your contractor's seasonal COP, from 1.00 to 6.00, which then replaces the rating.
• Backup heat: none beyond the rating, or keeping the existing resistance heaters as backup, with the share of the year's heat they supply, from 0 to 1.
• Price: the state, which sets the default electricity price, and your own electricity price in dollars per kWh (0.01 to 2.00), optional.
• Purchase and finance: the installed price of the heat pump, which is always yours to set; extra work such as permits, electrical or duct work; sales tax; verified incentives; removal; the old system's sale value; yearly upkeep of each system; the years the old system has left; the new system's expected life; the yearly change in electricity prices; the discount rate; and the years to compare.

Heating and cooling needs are in million Btu (MMBtu) a year of heat delivered or removed. Electricity is in kWh, fuel in US gallons or therms, efficiency ratings in Btu per watt-hour (CEER, SEER2, HSPF2) or as a fraction (AFUE), and money in dollars.

Governing relationships

• Heat delivered by the old system = heating kWh x 3,412 Btu per kWh: resistance heat turns all of its electricity into heat in the home.
• Heat-pump electricity = heat needed / (seasonal COP x 3,412 Btu per kWh). The seasonal COP is HSPF2 x 1000 / 3,412 unless you enter your own, so HSPF2 and COP give the same kWh for the same heat.
• Backup heat: HSPF2 already includes the electric resistance heat a heat pump needs in DOE's moderate rating climate (Region IV), so the backup share is extra heat beyond that, supplied by your resistance heaters at 3,412 Btu per kWh.
• Yearly cost = electricity x electricity price + upkeep. The yearly saving is the old cost minus the new cost.
• Payback and present value follow the rules shared with the other replacement calculators: a simple payback only when the yearly saving is positive, and the costs of keeping, replacing now and replacing at the end of life discounted over the years you compare, with nothing counted twice.

Calculation sequence

The spreadsheet first checks the inputs and finds the heat pump's rating and the electricity price. It turns your heating electricity into the heat your home needed, reduces each system to the electricity it uses per million Btu of heat, and from those computes the yearly electricity, costs and saving; the purchase cost, the paybacks, the present values and the year-by-year cash flow follow. The sensitivity table uses the same per-MMBtu figures, so it cannot disagree with the main result. Consistency checks, including that your heating electricity is reproduced from the computed heat and that the discounted cash flow reaches the same net present value as the closed-form formula, run before the status is returned.

Outputs and interpretation

For each system the results show the heat it delivers, the efficiency used, the yearly electricity and the yearly energy and total cost; then the yearly saving in dollars and in kWh, the net cost of the heat pump, the simple and discounted payback, and the cost of each path.

The cash-flow table shows each year of the years compared: the cost of each path, the net benefit of replacing now, and its cumulative, discounted and cumulative discounted values. The sensitivity table shows the yearly saving with the heat need scaled by 0.50, 0.75, 1.00, 1.25 and 1.50, at the same multiples of the electricity price used.

A model card beside the heat-pump pick shows the range of its ratings across the indoor units it is certified with, whether ENERGY STAR lists it as cold-climate, and its heating capacity. The calculator uses the lowest SEER2 and HSPF2 among those pairings, so it does not credit a better pairing than the one you may buy.

The first chart, “Cumulative net benefit of replacing now, by year”, shows Undiscounted and Discounted by year. The second chart, “Cost over the years compared”, shows Total and Present value by option. The third chart, “Running cost in year 1”, shows Heating electricity, Fuel (none) and Auxiliary electricity and upkeep by system, stacked.

Validation and status logic

The workbook returns one status, chosen in this order: NOT VALID, then CHECK, then OK.

• NOT VALID names the first problem: a heat-pump choice that is not one of its options, a listed model that is not in its list or does not match the type chosen, or a manual HSPF2 missing or outside 5 to 20; a heating electricity figure missing or outside its limits; a backup choice that is not one of its options, or a backup share outside 0 to 1; a seasonal COP outside 1.00 to 6.00; no electricity price, or your own outside 0.01 to 2.00 dollars per kWh; a missing installed price, or one outside its limits; a money amount, the years compared, the price change, the discount rate or a life in years outside its limits. NOT VALID is a refusal, not a numeric answer: every figure reads zero and is withheld.
• CHECK accompanies a computed result that needs the stated review: a cold state (6,000 heating degree days or more), a heat pump ENERGY STAR does not list as cold-climate, and no backup heat beyond the rating: the HSPF2 rating assumes a moderate climate, so real seasonal efficiency will be lower; with no backup heat, the heat pump's capacity at your coldest month's average temperature is below that month's average heating load, so you may need a larger model, more units or backup heat; a heating electricity figure of zero; no yearly saving, so there is no payback; the old system's remaining life is shorter than the years compared, so read the end-of-life comparison.
• OK otherwise.

Assumptions and limitations

• A heat pump never uses more electricity than resistance heat for the same heat, so the energy saving is never negative. A result with no saving comes from the yearly upkeep you enter for the heat pump, or from your own prices; one worked example shows this with an illustrative service plan.
• Your heating year is taken as a typical year, and your heating electricity is your estimate from your bills. The calculator does not adjust it for a mild or a harsh winter.
• Heating only. Cooling from the new heat pump is not credited; if it also replaces an air conditioner, the cooling side belongs to the heat pump upgrade or central air conditioner calculators. Adding ducts or ductless units is not modelled.
• Inputs with no federal source are your assumptions: the installed price and any backup share beyond the rating. Resistance heat is taken to deliver all its electricity as heat, a design value. The cold-state threshold of 6,000 heating degree days is a design choice that only sets a warning.
• The size check is lenient by design. A true design load needs a design temperature, and no federal table in this calculator gives one per state. So the check compares the heat pump's capacity at the coldest month's mean temperature, read between its rated capacities at 47 °F and 5 °F, with that month's average heating load, worked out from your own heat use and NOAA's monthly degree-day normals. It warns only when the heat pump cannot meet even that average load and no backup heat is chosen.
• Alaska, Hawaii and DC. NOAA publishes no statewide degree-day normals for any of the three. DC uses Maryland's figures; Alaska and Hawaii each use one NOAA station normal, at the Anchorage and Honolulu airports, labelled as a single station. No figure in this calculator depends on degree days: only the cold-state and size checks read them, and a check is not evaluated where its figures are missing.
• Prices. The installed price of the heat pump is always your input; the workbook holds no price table. The opening example and each worked example carry a round illustrative price so that they compute, with the note: "Illustrative price for this example, not a quote or a current price. Prices vary: check current prices online or enter your own. Get a contractor quote."
• The default electricity price is a state average. Your own price from your bill overrides it.

Data and vintage

• Heat pumps: the ENERGY STAR certified air-source heat pump list (EPA), current certifications, one entry per outdoor unit sold in the US, each with the lowest SEER2 and HSPF2 among its certified indoor-unit pairings.
• Climate: NOAA NCEI statewide heating degree-day normals for 1991-2020 (nClimDiv), with the monthly normals for the size check; the US figure covers the 48 contiguous states. NOAA calls these long-term averages rather than official normals, and its notes state neither the base temperature nor the weighting.
• Default price: EIA final 2025 average residential electricity prices by state (Form EIA-861).
• Conversion: 3,412 Btu per kWh, EIA's sample conversion factor.

Worked examples and prices

Prices are not part of the reference data: the price of the new unit is an input you set. The opening example and the five worked examples each use an illustrative price for the new unit, so that the example computes, and each says so: “Illustrative price for this example, not a quote or a current price. Prices vary: check current prices online or enter your own.”

Restrictions and non-computing states

The calculator enforces its numeric and choice limits before it accepts a result. A listed model that is not in its list or does not match the type chosen, a rating or quantity outside its limits, a missing installed price, and a missing electricity or fuel price where no default exists are refused by the workbook.

Errors and warnings

A request rejected by the page's input limits is not a computed result. A transport or service failure, a timeout or a cancelled run cannot establish a fresh workbook answer, and the last result stays on the page marked as out of date. Check your equipment's nameplate or AHRI certificate and your own bills before relying on a result for a purchase, and get a contractor quote for the installed price.

Sources and further reading

The calculator reads its model lists, its federal minimum ratings, its climate figures and its default energy prices from reviewed reference tables inside the workbook, with their version shown in the result details. Every table comes from a US federal source. The sources below publish the data and the rules the model applies. They do not endorse this calculator.

• ENERGY STAR data portal catalog (EPA) lists the EPA's certified-product datasets, among them the heat pump list used here (retrieved 2026-10-28).
• ENERGY STAR Certified Heat Pumps (EPA) lists certified air-source heat pumps by outdoor and indoor unit, with SEER2, HSPF2, heating capacity at 47 °F and 5 °F, and a cold-climate flag (retrieved 2026-10-28).
• ENERGY STAR air-source heat pumps: information for partners (EPA) links the ENERGY STAR heat pump specification, whose criteria include the cold-climate designation shown on the model card (retrieved 2026-10-28).
• DOE energy conservation standards, 10 CFR 430.32 (eCFR) sets the federal minimum SEER2 and HSPF2 for heat pumps, which are based on DOE's Region IV climate (retrieved 2026-10-28).
• DOE test procedures, 10 CFR 430 subpart B (eCFR) defines HSPF2, the seasonal heating efficiency of a heat pump (retrieved 2026-10-28).
• NOAA NCEI, Climate Divisional Database (nClimDiv) publishes statewide degree-day normals, used here for 1991-2020 (retrieved 2026-10-28).
• NOAA NCEI, U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, station files gives the Anchorage and Honolulu airport normals that stand in for Alaska and Hawaii (retrieved 2026-10-28).
• EIA, British thermal units (Btu) gives 3,412 Btu per kWh (retrieved 2026-10-28).
• EIA, Detailed state data (Form EIA-861) gives the average residential electricity price by state, used here for 2025 (retrieved 2026-10-28).
• EIA, Residential Energy Consumption Survey 2020, state data gives typical space-heating electricity per household by state for 2020, mixing heat pumps and resistance heat; it is a rough cross-check for your own figure, not a value in the calculator (retrieved 2026-10-28).

This is an educational estimate of running and purchase costs for the equipment and prices you enter, not a product recommendation or a quote. Ratings are measured under federal test procedures, not in your home.