The furnace died. Here is how people actually pay for this.
You are making a five-figure decision on a short clock, in a cold house, with a contractor waiting on an answer. This page puts the money options in order, cheapest first, and shows where a heat pump comes out ahead of a straight replacement.
Set the anchor before you sign
An emergency purchase is the worst environment for a price check, which is exactly why one is worth the twenty minutes. Most homeowners in this position have a single number in front of them: the quote the contractor who came out this morning wrote down. One number is not a price, it is an offer.
We do not publish a national installed-cost range for gas or oil furnaces and boilers, because we do not have one we can stand behind. What we can give you is the verified other side of the comparison: what the electric replacement costs. Put the fossil quote next to these ranges, and you will know within a few minutes whether the swap you are being sold is the cheaper choice or just the faster one.
| Measure | Installed range | What moves it |
|---|---|---|
| Whole-home ducted heat pump | $14,000–$25,000 | Before incentives. Low end: moderate climate, tight home, usable existing ductwork, competitive contractor market. High end: cold climate, high-labor metro, electrical work, ductwork. |
| New ductwork (if the old ducts cannot be reused) | $2,000–$10,000+ | $2,000 on a small home, $10,000 and up for a full retrofit. This is the adder that moves a quote the most. |
| Ductless mini-split, single zone | $5,400–$8,500 | Rewiring America band, median $6,600. Angi and HomeAdvisor report a lower $2,000–$6,000 typical, most spend around $3,000. For a heating retrofit, use the higher band. |
| Ductless mini-split, multi-zone | $6,500–$15,000+ | Roughly $2,000–$7,000 per zone. Zone count is the single biggest cost driver. |
Installed costs from research/installed-costs.md, accessed July 12, 2026. Before incentives.
Where the sources disagree, and why we show both
The whole-home ducted heat pump range is not a single clean average, and anyone who tells you it is has picked a side. EnergySage marketplace data puts the ducted average at $14,529 (all-type whole-home average $15,393, with state extremes running from around $8,000 in New Mexico to around $33,000 in New York). Rewiring America puts the median at $19,500 for a 1,500–2,500 sq ft home, $25,000 for 2,500–5,500 sq ft, and $29,000 above 5,500 sq ft.
Those are different methods measuring different populations, and the gap between them is roughly the gap between a competitive marketplace quote and a typical whole-house replacement. If your quote lands between them, it is in normal territory. If it lands well above the Rewiring America figure for your house size, ask what in the scope explains it, and check whether ductwork is the answer: new ductwork alone adds $2,000 on a small home and $10,000 or more on a full retrofit. Cold-climate metros in the Northeast can also run 20–50% above the national midpoints, which is a real cost driver, not a markup.
Get the number for your own house rather than working from a national band. The heat pump cost calculator takes home size, climate, and duct condition and returns a range you can hold a quote against, and how to read a quote walks through what belongs on the paperwork line by line. If you have the time for it, more than one quote is still the single highest-return hour in this project, and these questions separate a load-calculated bid from a rule-of-thumb one.
Cheapest money first
Work down this list in order. Every step you skip costs more than the one above it. We name state and utility programs only; we do not name private lenders.
Rebates and incentives
Money you do not pay back. State, utility, and (in some states) federally funded programs cut the invoice before any financing math starts. Most require pre-approval or a participating contractor, so the call has to happen before the equipment goes in, not after. In an emergency that is the one phone call worth making on day one: ask your utility whether an emergency replacement can still be pre-approved, and ask your contractor which programs they are registered for.
The catch: Requires pre-approval and a qualifying contractor in most programs. Rules changed federally in 2026 (see section 04).
0% and low-interest state energy loans
Several states run their own energy loan funds at rates no bank matches. Massachusetts runs the Mass Save HEAT Loan at 0% interest up to $25,000, a lifetime maximum per customer rather than per project (verified July 15, 2026). Maine has Efficiency Maine Home Energy Loans: a 1-year 0% APR option up to $25,000 with a $500 origination fee, a 5-year 5.99% APR and a 10-year 7.99% APR up to $25,000 with no fees, and an income-based 10-year 5.99% APR up to $7,500 (verified July 15, 2026). New Jersey's Clean Energy Whole Home program financing offers $25,000 at 0% over 10 years or $10,000 at 0% over 7 years (verified July 11, 2026).
The catch: Underwriting and approved-contractor rules apply. Maine, for example, requires an Efficiency Maine Registered Vendor, a minimum FICO of 620 and a maximum DTI of 55% on standard terms.
Utility on-bill financing
Some utilities lend against your account and collect the payment on your monthly bill. Tacoma Power in Washington runs on-bill loans at 0% for 7 years, up to $20,000 for a heat pump and up to $10,000 for insulation, with pre-approval and a Participating Contractor required (verified July 11, 2026). New Hampshire's Home Energy Performance 2% financing runs through the utilities at 2% APR unsecured, $1,000–$15,000, with terms up to 7 years on loans of $12,001–$15,000, and is described as valid for a limited time while funding lasts (verified July 11, 2026).
The catch: Utility-specific, not statewide. Ask your own utility by name. Pre-approval before installation is almost always required.
Home equity (HELOC or home equity loan)
If you have equity and time to close, secured borrowing is usually the cheapest option left after the programs above. A home equity loan gives you a fixed amount at a fixed rate. A HELOC is a revolving line you draw against, which suits a phased project better than a one-day emergency. The tradeoff is real: your house is the collateral, and closing takes weeks, not days.
The catch: Too slow for a furnace that died this morning. Useful for refinancing an expensive emergency purchase a month later.
Contractor or dealer financing
Most HVAC companies offer financing at the kitchen table through a third-party lender. It is fast, often same-day, and that speed is exactly why it gets used in emergencies. Promotional 0% offers are common and can be genuinely good, but read what happens at the end of the promotional window: deferred-interest structures can charge back the whole accrued balance if the loan is not paid off in time. Ask for the APR after promotion, the term, and any dealer fee in writing before you sign.
The catch: Ask whether the cash price is lower than the financed price. Dealer fees are often built into the quote.
Personal loan or credit card
Unsecured and fast, which is the whole appeal at 6am in an unheated house. It is also the most expensive money in this list, and putting a five-figure heating system on a revolving card is the choice most likely to be regretted. If it is the only path to heat this week, take it, then refinance it within the month into a state loan or home equity once the crisis is over.
The catch: Treat as a bridge, not a plan. Refinance it as soon as the house is warm.
Other verified state programs sit in the same low-interest tier and are worth checking if you live in one: the Connecticut Green Bank Smart-E Loan at 6.99% APR on 5, 7, and 10-year terms, 7.49% at 12 years and 7.99% at 15 years, up to $50,000 (the 0.99% heat pump special offer ran April 1 to July 31, 2026 and has ended; a 1.99% five-year successor was announced, so confirm the current rate with the administrator). Pennsylvania's KEEP Home Energy Loan runs $2,500–$25,000 at below-market interest on 36 to 120-month terms. Energize Delaware lends up to $50,000 for efficiency upgrades. Nebraska's Dollar and Energy Saving Loans run through utility lending partners at roughly 1.5% through NPPD and 3% through OPPD. Efficiency Vermont's Home Energy Loan starts at 0% for income-qualified households. All verified between July 11 and July 15, 2026.
The full picture, including which programs exist in states we have not listed here, is in state energy efficiency loans. For the equity-versus-energy-loan tradeoff, read HELOC vs energy loan. For what a dealer finance agreement actually says, read HVAC financing explained, and for the money map across every measure, how to pay for home energy upgrades.
After rebates, a heat pump often beats a like-for-like swap
Often, not always. Here is the operating-cost math and the cases where the straight replacement still wins.
The decision has two halves and people usually only look at one. The first half is what you write the check for this week. The second half is what the system costs to run for the next fifteen years, and on an oil or propane house that second number is frequently larger than the first.
These are the fuel prices to run your own comparison from. Every one carries its as-of date, because heating fuel prices move and two of these surveys are currently paused.
| Fuel | Price | As of | Read it with this |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electricity (US residential average) | 18.83 ¢/kWh | EIA, April 2026 | Regional spread is wide: New England 29.49¢, Middle Atlantic 25.09¢, Pacific Contiguous 26.05¢, East North Central 19.78¢, South Atlantic 16.45¢, Mountain 14.92¢, West North Central 14.62¢, all same month. |
| Natural gas (residential) | $13.96–$16.25 / Mcf | EIA, Nov 2025 – Mar 2026 heating season | Roughly $1.35–$1.57 per therm (derived from the Mcf figures). |
| Heating oil | $5.535 / gal | EIA weekly, final reading March 30, 2026 | The weekly survey is paused off-season and returns October 2026. Treat this as the last verified in-season number, not today's price. |
| Propane | $2.674 / gal | EIA weekly, final reading March 30, 2026 | Same paused survey, same October 2026 restart. Confirm your own delivered price with your supplier. |
EIA data. The heating oil and propane weekly surveys are paused off-season and return October 2026.
Where the heat pump wins
The clearest case is an oil or propane house. At the last in-season readings of $5.535 per gallon for heating oil and $2.674 per gallon for propane (March 30, 2026), a delivered-fuel household is paying a premium that an efficient electric system does not have to match on a one-for-one energy basis, because a heat pump moves several units of heat for each unit of electricity it consumes. Add an electricity rate at or below the April 2026 national average of 18.83 ¢/kWh and the operating gap gets wide.
The second case is a large rebate. In a state with a strong program, the rebate can close most or all of the gap between a fossil replacement quote and a heat pump quote, which turns the decision from "spend more now to save later" into "spend about the same and save later." Massachusetts, for example, pays up to $8,500 for a whole-home air-source heat pump and up to $9,500 on a partial-home system with bonuses, with up to $16,000 (or no cost) for income-qualified households (Mass Save, verified July 15, 2026). That is the size of program that changes the arithmetic outright.
Where the like-for-like swap still makes sense
We are not going to pretend the answer is always the same. The straight replacement is the reasonable call when several of these are true at once:
- Cheap natural gas and expensive electricity. At the low end of the November 2025 to March 2026 residential gas range ($13.96 per Mcf, roughly $1.35 per therm) paired with a New England-style 29.49 ¢/kWh electric rate, the operating advantage narrows sharply or disappears.
- No rebate you qualify for. If your state program has not launched, is closed to new applicants, or is income-restricted, the sticker gap stays a real gap.
- Ductwork that cannot carry heat pump airflow. A $2,000 to $10,000-plus duct retrofit added to an emergency purchase is a genuine reason to defer.
- A panel or service that needs upgrading first, this week. Electrical work on an emergency timeline is where changeouts stall.
- You are moving in two years. The payback window has to fit inside your ownership window.
If the swap is the right call today, it does not have to be the last word. Plenty of households replace the furnace now and add a heat pump later as the primary heat, keeping the fossil system as backup. Run the numbers for your fuel and your rate in the heating fuel cost comparison calculator, and read heat pump vs furnace operating cost for the full method behind the comparison.
Federal rules changed in 2026, and not in your favor
If you are replacing a gas, oil, or propane system, the federal electrification rebate you may have read about no longer covers you. State and utility programs are a different story.
Two things happened. First, the 25C tax credit was terminated for anything placed in service after December 31, 2025 under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. There is no federal tax credit for a furnace, boiler, or heat pump installed in 2026. The details, including the one 2025 install you can still file for, are in the heat pump tax credit expired.
Second, and more directly relevant to a dead furnace: DOE Program Notice 26-2, dated May 29, 2026 (verified July 15, 2026), eliminated fuel switching from the HEAR program. Federal Home Electrification and Appliance Rebate money is no longer available for replacing a gas, oil, or propane appliance with an electric one. Heat pumps qualify under HEAR only for new construction or for replacing existing electric equipment. The same notice made insulation and air sealing upgrades a prerequisite before appliance rebates. Program Notice 26-1 applied the same fuel-switching change to HOMES. States operating under the old rules have roughly until the end of August or early September 2026 to amend their programs.
That is the bad news, stated plainly, and it is worth stating because a lot of pages on the internet have not caught up. Here is what has not changed: many state and utility programs fund fossil-to-electric conversion with their own money and are unaffected by the DOE notices. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, New York and others run rebates that are not HEAR dollars. Rhode Island's EnergyWise enhanced heat pump rebate pays $1,500 per ton for homes heating primarily with electric resistance baseboard, with weatherization completed first (verified July 19, 2026). Your utility may have its own program on top.
The rule that saves people the most disappointment: a federal allocation is not a rebate. A headline about billions flowing to your state does not mean a dollar is available to you this month. Check what is actually open where you live on the 2026 home energy rebates guide and your own state page.
See which programs are open in your state today.
Most rebates require pre-approval before installation. Ten minutes now is worth more than any appeal later.
Run the rebate matcherThere is a path that does not involve borrowing
If your household income qualifies, heating replacement can be covered at no cost. This route runs through agencies, not contractors, and it is the first call to make.
Nothing on this page matters if the honest answer is that there is no money and no credit. That situation is common and there is a real system built for it, one that most people discover far too late.
The federal Weatherization Assistance Program is delivered by state agencies and local community action agencies. It covers envelope work and, in many states, heating system repair or replacement for income-qualified households at no cost to the homeowner. Alongside it, most states run their own low-income energy programs, and several route their federal electrification money exclusively through an income-eligible channel. Michigan's MiHER program, for instance, is currently limited to households at or below 150% of area median income; market-rate applications are not open (verified July 11, 2026). The District of Columbia delivers its HEAR program only through the Affordable Home Electrification program (verified July 11, 2026). Maine's remaining HEAR eligibility is restricted to new-construction affordable multifamily and income-eligible single-family mobile and manufactured homes through the $12,900 Mobile Home Initiative (verified July 15, 2026).
Two practical notes. Waitlists are usually long, but emergency heating replacement is often triaged ahead of routine weatherization work, so say the words "no heat" when you call. And these programs use their own approved contractors, so do not sign a contract with the company sitting in your kitchen before you have made the call, because doing so can disqualify the job.
Start with free furnace replacement for low-income households, which covers eligibility, what the programs actually pay for, and how to apply. Then go to your state page for the agency and phone number where you live. This section deliberately does not send you to a quote form; the agency is the right first call.
Questions people ask at 6am
How do I pay for a furnace replacement with no money?
Start with programs, not lenders. If your household income qualifies, the federal Weatherization Assistance Program and your state's low-income energy programs can cover heating repair or replacement at no cost, and they are the first call. If you do not qualify, look for a 0% or low-interest state energy loan, then utility on-bill financing, then contractor financing. Our guide at /guides/free-furnace-replacement-low-income/ covers the no-cost path, and /states/ lists the agency running it in your state.
What is the fastest way to finance an emergency furnace replacement?
Contractor or dealer financing is usually the fastest, often approved the same day at the kitchen table. It is also rarely the cheapest. If you take it to get heat back this week, ask for the APR after any promotional period in writing, then plan to refinance into a state energy loan or home equity within the month. A personal loan or card is the last resort and should be treated as a bridge.
Is there a federal tax credit for a new furnace in 2026?
No. The 25C Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit was terminated for property placed in service after December 31, 2025 under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (Public Law 119-21). The IRS uses the placed-in-service date, so equipment bought in 2025 but installed in 2026 does not qualify. The one exception is filing: a system placed in service on or before December 31, 2025 is still claimed on your 2025 return, filed in 2026, using IRS Form 5695. That is the last filing season for it.
Should I replace my furnace with a heat pump instead?
Often yes, once rebates are counted, but not always. A heat pump wins when your state or utility rebate is large, your electricity rate is near or below the national average, your ductwork is reusable, and your current fuel is oil or propane. A like-for-like fossil replacement still makes sense when you have very cheap natural gas, an expensive electric rate, no rebate you qualify for, and no cash for the gap. Run your own numbers at /tools/heating-fuel-cost-comparison-calculator/ before you decide.
How fast can a furnace or heat pump replacement actually happen?
A like-for-like emergency swap can happen in a day or two if the equipment is on the truck. A heat pump changeout typically takes longer because of sizing, equipment availability, possible electrical work, and any rebate pre-approval. If you are without heat, ask your contractor for temporary heat while the better option is arranged, and ask whether the program you want allows pre-approval on an emergency timeline.
Keep reading
How to pay for home energy upgrades
The full money map: which programs pay first, which loans are cheapest, and the order to work through them for any project.
HELOC vs energy loan
When home equity beats a state energy loan, when it does not, and what each one costs you in fees and time to close.
HVAC financing explained
How contractor and dealer financing actually works, what deferred interest means, and the questions to ask before signing.
State energy efficiency loans
The state-by-state list of 0% and below-market energy loan programs, with the terms we have verified and the dates we verified them.
The heat pump tax credit expired
What 25C paid, when it ended, and what is left: the 2025 filing you can still make and the state programs that replaced it.
Heat pump vs furnace operating cost
The fuel-by-fuel math on what each system costs to run, and the conditions under which a heat pump wins or loses.
Get a second number before you commit.
One quote is an offer, not a price. Tell us your ZIP and what died, and we will connect you with installers who quote heat pumps and know which programs in your state are still open.
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