Should I keep my furnace as backup heat?

Keep it if it is a sound gas furnace with years left, and remove it if it is an old electric furnace. A healthy gas furnace makes an excellent backup below the switchover point and costs almost nothing to retain, since the heat pump coil simply sits above it. An electric furnace, by contrast, is the thing you are trying to stop paying for, and removing it in favour of modest strip backup is what qualifies the project for PSE’s conversion rebate.

Will my electric bill go up if I switch from gas to a heat pump?

Your electric bill will go up and your gas bill will go down, and whether the total improves depends on rates and how much of the season the heat pump carries. Switching from electric resistance is the clear win: variable-speed heat pumps have been reported to run as much as five times more efficiently than baseboard or electric forced air, and one regional installer reports heating bills dropping 40 to 50 percent for households leaving electric resistance. Those are attributed figures, not our own measurements, and we will not pretend a gas-to-electric switch is guaranteed to be cheaper on your rates.

Can I get the PSE hybrid heat pump rebate in Bellingham?

No, and this is the detail nearly every local bid gets wrong. PSE’s hybrid heat pump rebate and its moderate-income fuel-switching rebate both require PSE natural gas service, and Bellingham’s gas utility is Cascade Natural Gas. So a gas-heated home inside Bellingham currently has no PSE gas-to-heat-pump rebate at all. If your current heat is electric resistance, though, the $1,500 conversion rebate is fully available, which is why the fuel you are leaving matters more than the equipment you are buying.

Does a heat pump alone work here, without the furnace running?

Yes, when it is sized against Bellingham’s 19°F design temperature and given a small amount of backup for the coldest hours. Winter lows here rarely drop below 10°F, and cold-climate equipment holds useful capacity through that. The design question is where the balance point sits, and we tell you that number so you know how many hours a year backup heat contributes.

Can I keep my existing ducts and registers?

Usually yes, with checks and often some repair. Because heat pump supply air is cooler than furnace air, undersized returns and leaky crawlspace flex show up as rooms that feel drafty or never quite arrive. We measure static pressure and return capacity before quoting, and if the duct system is genuinely inadequate we will tell you whether repairing it or going ductless in the problem rooms is the better spend.

Will I need an electrical panel upgrade?

Sometimes, and it is the biggest variable in the budget when you are coming off gas. A heat pump needs a dedicated circuit and a disconnect, and adding that load to a full 100-amp panel may require a service load calculation and panel work. A licensed electrical contractor does that assessment and all of the electrical work; we do not hold an electrical licence and will never quote you electrical labour as if we did.

What happens to my gas water heater if I remove the gas furnace?

It can stay on gas, and often should for now, but the shared venting has to be looked at. A furnace and a water heater sharing a chimney or B-vent are sized as a pair, and pulling the furnace out can leave the water heater orphaned on a flue that no longer drafts properly. That work is coordinated with the appropriate licensed trade and the utility. If you would rather electrify the water side too, a heat pump water heater has its own PSE rebate of $1,000, or $1,100 with Efficiency Boost.

Are there state rebates for converting away from a furnace?

Washington’s HEAR program is administered locally through Sustainable Connections, Opportunity Council and Lummi Nation, and each administrator sets its own amounts, which are not published as a single statewide figure. So the honest answer is that it may help and we cannot quote you a number in advance. The Community Energy Challenge also offers up to $2,000 toward ductless for moderate-income households in homes built before 1990, plus weatherization support that has averaged around 45 percent of project cost.

How long does a furnace to heat pump conversion take?

One to two days if we are adding a heat pump coil above a furnace you are keeping. Two to three days for a full electric furnace removal, air handler replacement and any duct correction, and gas decommissioning pushes it further. The electrical work and the inspection are scheduled separately, so allow a couple of weeks end to end.

Do I need a permit for the conversion?

Yes, and it may be more than one. We pull the mechanical permit and meet the inspector, through City of Bellingham eTRAKiT inside city limits or Whatcom County Planning and Development Services outside them. Electrical is permitted by the licensed electrical contractor, and removing a gas appliance brings the gas and venting work under the relevant licensed trade rather than ours.

What does the conversion cost?

Published Bellingham ranges for a ducted heat pump on existing ductwork run $4,000 to $8,000 installed, and conversions land at both ends of that rather than in the middle. A dual-fuel coil on a good gas furnace is the cheap end; removing an electric furnace, repairing duct, and adding a circuit to a full panel is the expensive end. We quote mechanical, duct and electrical as separate lines so you can see which decision is costing what.

Is there still a federal tax credit for switching to a heat pump?

No. Federal §25C and §25D ended for property placed in service after December 31, 2025 under P.L. 119-21, confirmed by IRS FS-2025-05, and the placed-in-service date is what controls. There is also no Washington sales-tax exemption on heat pumps, despite how widely that is repeated. For a 2026 conversion the real money is the PSE electric-resistance rebate, Efficiency Boost if you income-qualify, and the local HEAR and Community Energy Challenge programs.

Furnace to Heat Pump Conversion

WA L&I #BELLIHC808NM Active registration — verify it with the state
$30,000 bonded Surety bond on file with L&I
$1,000,000 insured General liability coverage
Local since 2020 Owner-operated in Whatcom County
We pull the permit City of Bellingham or Whatcom County, and we meet the inspector

What people call us about

You have a furnace and no air conditioning, and last August the upstairs was unbearable while the smoke outside meant you could not open a window. If the furnace is electric, the winter bill is the other half of the complaint. You want to know whether a heat pump can go on the ducts you already have, whether the furnace stays as backup, and whether switching fuels helps your bill. The answer depends on the fuel you are on now, and in Bellingham the rebate answer is unusual enough that most bids get it wrong.

This is your job if

A 1960s rambler with the original electric forced-air furnace, where the PSE conversion rebate is genuinely on the table.
A gas furnace and no cooling, where the goal is air conditioning plus lower shoulder-season runtime.
A house on propane or oil with no gas main on the road, where a heat pump displaces the most expensive fuel in the county.
An aging electric furnace with usable duct in a heated crawlspace.
A home where the furnace is sound but the air conditioner is dead, so a dual-fuel setup costs less than replacing both appliances.

What furnace to heat pump conversion costs in Bellingham

installed ducted heat pump on existing serviceable ductwork in Bellingham. No typical figure is quoted because conversions are genuinely bimodal: a dual-fuel coil added above a healthy gas furnace and a full electric-furnace removal with duct repair and panel work sit at opposite ends of this range. Electrical and duct work are quoted separately.

Simple job: $4,000
Complex job: $8,000

Installed price before rebates. The federal §25C tax credit contributes $0 in 2026 — it terminated for anything placed in service after December 31, 2025.

Range benchmarked 2026-09-04 against published local pricing. Your quote is fixed before work starts — no hourly surprises.

How long it takes: One to two days for a dual-fuel coil on an existing furnace. Two to three days for a full electric furnace removal and air handler swap, plus electrical and inspection.

Rebates that apply to this work

Electric Resistance to Air-Source Heat Pump Conversion

Puget Sound Energy

$1,500
Available now

$2,400 with PSE Efficiency Boost for income-qualified households.

Paperwork:

We file it

Deadline:

No published end date — tariffed and subject to change

Verified:

2026-09-04 · source
Efficiency Boost (income-qualified multiplier)

Puget Sound Energy

Raises other PSE rebates
Income-qualified

Heat pump $1,500 → $2,400 · heat pump water heater $1,000 → $1,100 · smart thermostat $75 → $175.

Paperwork:

We file it

Deadline:

Ongoing

Verified:

2026-09-04 · source
Hybrid Heat Pump Rebate

Puget Sound Energy

$1,500
Check first

$2,400 with Efficiency Boost — but not reachable from a Bellingham address.

Bellingham note: Unavailable in Bellingham. This rebate requires PSE natural gas service, and Bellingham’s gas utility is Cascade Natural Gas. PSE supplies electricity to all of Whatcom County but no natural gas, so a gas-heated Bellingham home currently has no PSE gas-to-heat-pump conversion rebate at all.

Paperwork:

We file it

Deadline:

No published end date

Verified:

2026-09-04 · source
Midstream HVAC Equipment Discount

Puget Sound Energy (with ICF)

$300–$600
Available now

Tier 1 $300 (SEER2 ≥15.2 / HSPF2 ≥8.1, retrofit only) · Tier 2 $400 (SEER2 ≥15.2 / HSPF2 ≥8.5) · Tier 3 $600 (SEER2 ≥16 / HSPF2 ≥9.5).

Bellingham note: Whether this discount can be combined with the $1,500 conversion rebate is unconfirmed: PSE’s conversion page says its rebate "cannot be combined with any other rebates except where noted", while PSE’s heating hub tells customers to ask their contractor. We quote it separately and confirm with a PSE Energy Advisor before counting it toward your total.

Paperwork:

Comes off the equipment price

Deadline:

No published end date

Verified:

2026-09-04 · source
Washington State HEAR — Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates

WA Dept. of Commerce via local administrators

Varies by administrator
Income-qualified

Commerce awarded $39.3M across 40 local administrators with no statewide schedule. Whatcom-relevant awards: Sustainable Connections $731,250, Opportunity Council $500,000, Lummi Nation $950,500. Per-household amounts are not published.

Paperwork:

The program files it

Deadline:

While administrator funds last

Verified:

2026-09-04 · source
Community Energy Challenge — moderate income

Sustainable Connections + Opportunity Council

Up to $2,000
Income-qualified

For a ductless heat pump upgrade. Weatherization incentives average roughly 45% of project cost. Stated by CEC to be in addition to utility rebates.

Paperwork:

The program files it

Deadline:

Ongoing

Verified:

2026-09-04 · source
Federal §25C Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit

Internal Revenue Service

$0 — terminated
Ended

Historically 30% of cost, up to $2,000/year for heat pumps and heat pump water heaters. Gone. The One Big Beautiful Bill (P.L. 119-21, enacted July 4, 2025) accelerated its termination.

Paperwork:

You file it

Deadline:

Terminated — property placed in service after December 31, 2025 does not qualify

Verified:

2026-09-04 · source

Price a furnace to heat pump conversion for your house

A range, not a quote — and the arithmetic is shown so you can check it. Every band below is a published installed price, linked at the bottom.

Sources, all checked 2026-09-04: ductless by zone, ducted in Bellingham, local aggregator range, panel upgrade, dedicated circuit, heat pump water heater. Electrical work is performed and permitted by a licensed electrical contractor — we hold a general contractor registration, not an electrical one.

Check what you qualify for

Four questions. No email required, and the answer is sometimes “nothing” — we would rather tell you that now than after a sales visit.

How the job actually goes

Establish what you are actually heating with

The whole plan hinges on the current fuel. Electric resistance, whether a forced-air electric furnace, baseboards or wall heaters, is what PSE’s $1,500 conversion rebate is written for. Natural gas in Bellingham means Cascade Natural Gas, not PSE, and that single fact removes PSE’s gas-side rebates from your project. Propane and oil carry no utility rebate at all, but the largest running-cost saving.

Your part: Have a recent PSE bill and, if you have gas, a Cascade bill ready. They settle the fuel question and the rebate question in one minute.
Assess the duct system for heat pump airflow

A furnace delivers 120°F air in short bursts; a heat pump delivers 95°F to 105°F air for longer. Duct that was adequate for the furnace can leave you with a cool-feeling supply and uneven rooms. We check trunk and return sizing, look for the crushed and disconnected flex that Whatcom crawlspaces are full of, and price duct repair as its own line rather than discovering it on install day.

Your part: Point out the rooms that were always cold with the furnace; those are the ones a heat pump will expose.
Decide the configuration: full heat pump or dual fuel

If the furnace is electric, the usual answer is to remove it, fit a heat pump with a modest electric strip backup, and take the rebate. If it is a healthy gas furnace, a dual-fuel setup lets the heat pump carry the mild months and the furnace take over below the switchover point, which is a real option in a 19°F design climate. We size the load at 19°F, identify the balance point, and show you where each option lands rather than pushing one.

Your part: Tell us how long you plan to stay in the house. Dual fuel makes more sense on a young furnace than on an old one.
Electrical load calculation and work by a licensed electrical contractor

Adding a heat pump to a house heated by gas means adding electrical load that was never there. Adding one where an electric furnace lived usually means less load, but the circuit and breaker still change. We do not hold an electrical contractor licence, so a licensed electrical contractor performs the service load calculation, the dedicated circuit, the disconnect and any panel work, permitted separately. In an older home with a full 100-amp panel, this is the step that most often changes the budget.

Your part: Send a photo of the panel and its label early, before you are attached to a number.
Permit, and gas decommissioning done by the right trade

We pull the mechanical permit through City of Bellingham eTRAKiT or Whatcom County Planning and Development Services and meet the inspector. If a gas furnace is being removed entirely, capping and decommissioning the gas line and the venting is coordinated with the appropriate licensed trade and the utility rather than improvised. The chimney or B-vent that served it has to be addressed rather than abandoned open.
Install, pressure test, evacuate, and charge

The outdoor unit goes on a raised, level pad with service clearance. Inside, a heat pump coil goes above a retained gas furnace for a dual-fuel setup, or a new air handler replaces the electric furnace outright. The circuit is nitrogen pressure-tested, then evacuated and confirmed on a micron gauge with a decay test before a weighed charge goes in.
Commission the switchover and set up the rebate file

Dual fuel lives or dies on the switchover logic. We set the outdoor temperature at which the furnace takes over, prove the changeover both directions, and confirm the heat pump is not locked out early by a default thermostat setting. On an all-electric conversion we set backup lockout at or below 35°F with the compressor lockout disabled, as PSE’s rebate requires. We prepare the rebate documentation, but PSE requires the installing contractor to be in its network, so ask us to confirm status for your project before you count on the rebate.

Your part: Learn the one thermostat behaviour that matters on a heat pump, which is leaving the setpoint alone instead of setting back deeply overnight.

Permits

We pull the mechanical permit and meet the inspector; electrical is permitted by the licensed electrical contractor and gas decommissioning by the appropriate licensed trade. Whether the permit is issued by City of Bellingham Building Services or Whatcom County Planning and Development Services depends on city limits, not on your mailing address, and many Bellingham addresses are unincorporated county.

Equipment we install

Daikin

Aurora single-zone wall-mount and floor-mount heat pumps · Atmosphera R-32 single-zone wall-mount heat pumps · MXM and MXT multi-zone outdoor units · SkyAir light commercial split systems · Daikin FIT ducted inverter heat pumps and matched air handlers

Daikin is the line we install most often, for unglamorous reasons: the ductless equipment is good, the registered parts term is long, and the seasonal instant rebates are real money on a tightly priced job. It is not the strongest sub-zero machine on the market, and at a 19°F design temperature it does not need to be. Two honest cautions: Daikin runs a large dealer program in Whatcom County, so shop the installer and the scope of work rather than the logo on the brochure. And the industry move to R-32 means an older R-410A Daikin already in your house sits on a different parts path than anything current we would quote you.

Bosch

IDS Light inverter ducted split heat pumps · IDS Premium Connected inverter ducted split heat pumps · IDS Ultra cold-climate inverter ducted split heat pumps · Climate 5000 single-zone and multi-zone ductless systems · Matched air handlers and coils for the IDS family

Bosch is a ducted-retrofit brand and that is squarely where we would use it: a 1990s house with serviceable ductwork and a dying electric furnace. One modulating ducted unit beats hanging four heads on the walls of a house that already has a distribution system, the cabinet is compact, and the bid usually undercuts a comparable Daikin FIT. Two reservations, stated plainly: the Climate 5000 ductless line is not in the same conversation as Daikin, Mitsubishi or Fujitsu ductless, and we would not lead with it. The Bosch dealer footprint in Whatcom County is also thin, which is a parts-availability question you should put to anyone who quotes it, including us.

Mitsubishi Electric

M-Series single-zone ductless systems · Hyper-Heating INVERTER (H2i) and H2i plus outdoor units · MXZ multi-zone outdoor units · SVZ air handlers and SEZ concealed ducted indoor units · P-Series light commercial equipment

This is the equipment to buy when the building is genuinely hard: a mountain cabin, a leaky 1920s four-square, or a multi-zone layout with long linesets and awkward head placement. The low-temperature engineering is the best documented in the industry, the controls are the best to live with, and the heat pump carries the load instead of handing off to strip heat every January. The counterpoint is money: on a tight, well-insulated house at 19°F you are paying a premium for capacity below zero that Bellingham weather will not request. The headline 12-year warranty is also gated behind a contractor program, so compare the ten-year reality against a Daikin or Fujitsu bid.

Fujitsu

Halcyon residential ductless systems · AIRSTAGE H-Series residential ductless systems · XLTH extra-low-temperature-heating outdoor units · AIRSTAGE Orion XLTH and Altair 500 R-32 single-zone wall mounts · AIRSTAGE Aquila multi-room outdoor units for two to five zones

Fujitsu is the value play in the ductless field and it is badly underexposed here, mainly because no Whatcom County contractor bothers to market it. The XLTH hardware suits a cold, snowy foothills site well, and a Fujitsu bid usually lands under a comparable Mitsubishi bid for similar published performance. The real drawback is logistics rather than engineering: fewer distributors here stock Fujitsu inverter boards and sensors, so a failed control board can mean waiting on a shipment instead of a same-week repair. The Halcyon-to-AIRSTAGE rebrand also makes parts lookups genuinely confusing when you are matching components to a unit installed five years ago.

Sized for 19°F, not for a rule of thumb

Washington's energy code puts Bellingham's outdoor heating design temperature at 19°F — colder than Sea-Tac's 24°F. We size from a load calculation against that number and spec equipment on its capacity at 5°F, because that is the figure that decides whether your auxiliary heat strips run all winter.

Bellingham sits in climate zone 4C (marine): heating-dominated, damp, rarely below 10°F. It is close to ideal heat pump territory, provided the system is not oversized.

Heat pump operating in freezing conditions outside a Pacific Northwest home

Questions Bellingham homeowners actually ask

Should I keep my furnace as backup heat?: Keep it if it is a sound gas furnace with years left, and remove it if it is an old electric furnace. A healthy gas furnace makes an excellent backup below the switchover point and costs almost nothing to retain, since the heat pump coil simply sits above it. An electric furnace, by contrast, is the thing you are trying to stop paying for, and removing it in favour of modest strip backup is what qualifies the project for PSE’s conversion rebate.
Will my electric bill go up if I switch from gas to a heat pump?: Your electric bill will go up and your gas bill will go down, and whether the total improves depends on rates and how much of the season the heat pump carries. Switching from electric resistance is the clear win: variable-speed heat pumps have been reported to run as much as five times more efficiently than baseboard or electric forced air, and one regional installer reports heating bills dropping 40 to 50 percent for households leaving electric resistance. Those are attributed figures, not our own measurements, and we will not pretend a gas-to-electric switch is guaranteed to be cheaper on your rates.
Can I get the PSE hybrid heat pump rebate in Bellingham?: No, and this is the detail nearly every local bid gets wrong. PSE’s hybrid heat pump rebate and its moderate-income fuel-switching rebate both require PSE natural gas service, and Bellingham’s gas utility is Cascade Natural Gas. So a gas-heated home inside Bellingham currently has no PSE gas-to-heat-pump rebate at all. If your current heat is electric resistance, though, the $1,500 conversion rebate is fully available, which is why the fuel you are leaving matters more than the equipment you are buying.
Does a heat pump alone work here, without the furnace running?: Yes, when it is sized against Bellingham’s 19°F design temperature and given a small amount of backup for the coldest hours. Winter lows here rarely drop below 10°F, and cold-climate equipment holds useful capacity through that. The design question is where the balance point sits, and we tell you that number so you know how many hours a year backup heat contributes.
Can I keep my existing ducts and registers?: Usually yes, with checks and often some repair. Because heat pump supply air is cooler than furnace air, undersized returns and leaky crawlspace flex show up as rooms that feel drafty or never quite arrive. We measure static pressure and return capacity before quoting, and if the duct system is genuinely inadequate we will tell you whether repairing it or going ductless in the problem rooms is the better spend.
Will I need an electrical panel upgrade?: Sometimes, and it is the biggest variable in the budget when you are coming off gas. A heat pump needs a dedicated circuit and a disconnect, and adding that load to a full 100-amp panel may require a service load calculation and panel work. A licensed electrical contractor does that assessment and all of the electrical work; we do not hold an electrical licence and will never quote you electrical labour as if we did.
What happens to my gas water heater if I remove the gas furnace?: It can stay on gas, and often should for now, but the shared venting has to be looked at. A furnace and a water heater sharing a chimney or B-vent are sized as a pair, and pulling the furnace out can leave the water heater orphaned on a flue that no longer drafts properly. That work is coordinated with the appropriate licensed trade and the utility. If you would rather electrify the water side too, a heat pump water heater has its own PSE rebate of $1,000, or $1,100 with Efficiency Boost.
Are there state rebates for converting away from a furnace?: Washington’s HEAR program is administered locally through Sustainable Connections, Opportunity Council and Lummi Nation, and each administrator sets its own amounts, which are not published as a single statewide figure. So the honest answer is that it may help and we cannot quote you a number in advance. The Community Energy Challenge also offers up to $2,000 toward ductless for moderate-income households in homes built before 1990, plus weatherization support that has averaged around 45 percent of project cost.
How long does a furnace to heat pump conversion take?: One to two days if we are adding a heat pump coil above a furnace you are keeping. Two to three days for a full electric furnace removal, air handler replacement and any duct correction, and gas decommissioning pushes it further. The electrical work and the inspection are scheduled separately, so allow a couple of weeks end to end.
Do I need a permit for the conversion?: Yes, and it may be more than one. We pull the mechanical permit and meet the inspector, through City of Bellingham eTRAKiT inside city limits or Whatcom County Planning and Development Services outside them. Electrical is permitted by the licensed electrical contractor, and removing a gas appliance brings the gas and venting work under the relevant licensed trade rather than ours.
What does the conversion cost?: Published Bellingham ranges for a ducted heat pump on existing ductwork run $4,000 to $8,000 installed, and conversions land at both ends of that rather than in the middle. A dual-fuel coil on a good gas furnace is the cheap end; removing an electric furnace, repairing duct, and adding a circuit to a full panel is the expensive end. We quote mechanical, duct and electrical as separate lines so you can see which decision is costing what.
Is there still a federal tax credit for switching to a heat pump?: No. Federal §25C and §25D ended for property placed in service after December 31, 2025 under P.L. 119-21, confirmed by IRS FS-2025-05, and the placed-in-service date is what controls. There is also no Washington sales-tax exemption on heat pumps, despite how widely that is repeated. For a 2026 conversion the real money is the PSE electric-resistance rebate, Efficiency Boost if you income-qualify, and the local HEAR and Community Energy Challenge programs.

Before you decide