Heat pumps, explained

One quiet system that heats AND cools your whole home - for less.

Heat pumps are the most popular HVAC upgrade in the country right now. Here's the plain-English version of what they are and why they make sense in Colorado.

What's a heat pump, in one sentence?

It's a single outdoor unit that heats your home in winter and cools it in summer - replacing both your furnace and your AC. No gas, no flame, no chimney. Just electricity.

Think of it like your refrigerator, but bigger and more flexible. A fridge moves heat from inside the fridge to the outside. A heat pump does the same thing - but in winter it pulls heat from the outside air into your house, and in summer it does the reverse.

But… does it really work when it's cold?

Yes. There's actually plenty of heat in Colorado air - even at 5°F. Modern heat pumps are built to capture it, and the good ones keep working all the way down to about −13°F.

Denver only sees temperatures that cold a handful of nights a year. We pick equipment that's rated for cold winters - which is the whole reason heat pumps used to have a reputation for being weak in the cold. That's old technology. The new stuff is genuinely good.

And if you're worried, we can pair a heat pump with your existing gas furnace as a winter backup. The best of both worlds.

What does it cost - and what do I save?

A typical install runs $18,000–$24,000 before rebates. After Colorado's rebates kick in, most homeowners pay $9,000–$15,000 out of pocket.

Then on the operating side: a properly sized heat pump usually cuts winter heating bills by 20–40% compared to a typical gas furnace, depending on your home and rates. And in summer, you've already got AC built in - no separate AC purchase needed.

What's the catch?

Honestly, the only catch is installation quality. A heat pump that's the wrong size, or installed by someone unfamiliar with cold-weather equipment, can underperform - and that's where the bad-news stories online come from.

We size every system to your specific home (we measure, we don't guess), use equipment rated for Colorado winters, and stand behind the install. That's it. There's no real downside to a heat pump installed by people who care about doing it right.

When we'll tell you NOT to get a heat pump

If your gas furnace is fairly new and works fine, ripping it out is wasteful. We'll often recommend keeping it as backup and pairing it with a heat pump (a "hybrid" setup). Cheaper to install, cheaper to run, and you keep a backup heat source for the coldest nights. We'll only recommend an all-electric setup when it's actually the right call for your home.

Ready for a real Colorado quote?

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