BC Heat Pump Costs
Heat pump vs gas furnace: what does it really cost in BC?
If you heat with natural gas in BC, switching to a heat pump will cut your running cost only a little — often around $100 a year. That surprises people, and it's the opposite of what most installer ads imply. Here's the honest 2026 math.
The short answer
- A typical coastal-BC home spends about $900/yr heating with gas, vs about $840/yr with a heat pump — roughly $90–150/yr saved.
- Why so close? BC has cheap gas and cheap hydro — the two fuels nearly tie on cost-per-unit-of-heat.
- The real reasons to switch from gas are cooling, comfort, and carbon — not your heating bill.
- Switching from oil, propane, or baseboard is a completely different story — big savings.
It comes down to cost per unit of heat
To compare fairly, convert both systems to the same thing: dollars per unit of delivered heat. A gas furnace burns gas at roughly 90% efficiency; a heat pump moves 2.8 units of heat for every unit of electricity it draws (a "COP" of 2.8 on the mild coast).
| System | Price | Cost per kWh of heat |
|---|---|---|
| Gas furnace (90%) | ~$13/GJ | ~5.2¢ |
| Heat pump (COP 2.8) | 13.1¢/kWh | ~4.7¢ |
The heat pump wins — but only by about half a cent per kWh of heat. Over a year's heating that's a modest gap, which is exactly why the bill barely moves.
A worked example
Take a 2,000 ft² coastal home needing about 18,000 kWh of heat per year:
| Gas furnace | ~$936/yr |
| Heat pump | ~$842/yr |
| Annual saving | ~$94/yr |
So why switch from gas at all?
- Air conditioning included. A heat pump is an AC in summer — increasingly valuable in BC heat waves.
- Carbon. It cuts your home's emissions substantially, which a furnace can't.
- Future rate risk. If gas prices climb faster than electricity, the gap widens over the system's 15+ year life.
Where heat pumps really save: not gas
The "small savings" story is only about gas. On the same 2,000 ft² home, switching from electric baseboard saves around $1,500/yr, and switching from oil can save $3,000+/yr. If that's your current heat, the running-cost case is strong on its own.
Bottom line
Against gas in BC, a heat pump is a comfort-and-carbon decision with a small bill bonus — not a money machine. Against oil, propane, or baseboard, it's a clear financial win. The free calculator shows which case is yours; the paid kit adds the rebates and payback.