Heat Pump vs Oil or Propane in NH

Updated 2026-09-30

Comparing a heat pump with oil or propane heat in New Hampshire is a bill question and a equipment question at the same time. This page will not invent your annual savings. Fuel prices move, electricity prices move, and your house may not match a statewide average. What you can do is make the comparison with the right inputs, then let an independent contractor price the equipment. Call (603) 420-0791 with your ZIP code. Confirm license and insurance before anyone works. This site does not sell oil, propane, or heat pumps.

Start from your actual use

Find a year of delivery tickets or utility bills. Oil is usually gallons. Propane is gallons. Electricity is kilowatt-hours. If you only have three winter months, do not multiply them into a fantasy year. Hot-water use, a wood stove you actually burn, and a space heater in a home office all distort the number. Write down what the boiler or furnace was doing. A boiler that also heats domestic water is not a heating-only load.

Efficiency of the existing appliance matters. An old oil boiler that short-cycles is not 85 percent efficient just because a label once said so. A heat pump's efficiency falls as outdoor temperature falls. A comparison that uses a single coefficient of performance for the whole winter is a sketch, not a bill.

Prices you should look up, not memorize

The U.S. Energy Information Administration publishes heating-oil and propane price series for New England. Those are regional averages, not your dealer's price, and they change every winter. Your electric delivery rate is on the bill from Eversource, Liberty, Unitil, the New Hampshire Electric Cooperative, or a municipal utility. The supply portion may be default service or a competitive supplier. Use the all-in rate you actually pay, including delivery. A comparison that uses only the energy rate and ignores delivery understates electricity.

Do the arithmetic in one season's units or have the contractor do it with you. If someone quotes a savings percentage with no gallons and no kilowatt-hours attached, ask for the worksheet. This website will not supply a fake one.

When the heat pump wins on paper, and when it does not

Heat pumps tend to look better against oil and propane when the existing appliance is old and the winter is mild enough that the heat pump stays in its efficient range, and when you are not heating a very leaky house with backup resistance strips. They look worse when the design leans on resistance heat for long stretches, when propane or oil is unusually cheap relative to your electric rate, or when the installation is so expensive that the payback outlives the equipment. Dual fuel keeps the oil or propane system for the coldest hours. You still pay to maintain that system. You also still need a tank, a delivery, and a contractor who will service it. That overhead belongs in the comparison.

Capital cost is the other half

Operating cost is not the quote. The quote is the installation, described in what a heat pump costs. A rebate reduces the capital cost only if you qualify. The 2026 NHSaves figures we could verify are summarized in New Hampshire heat pump rebates. Subtracting a rebate you have not been approved for is how proposals look cheaper than the check you write.

Comfort is not a spreadsheet

Oil and propane boilers in New Hampshire houses often serve radiators that people like. A heat pump does not automatically replace that feel. Ductless heads move air. Some people dislike the sound. Some rooms will need a head that a boiler never needed. If the comparison is only dollars per million Btu, you will be surprised by the rooms. Walk the house with the contractor and mark the rooms that must stay warm.

A fair next step

Bring the bills to the visit. Ask the contractor which design temperature they used and how many hours they expect backup heat to run. Ask what it costs to keep the boiler as dual fuel versus removing it. Then compare written quotes. You are not obligated to book. The contractor is independent and sets the price. This site does not warrant savings. People shown in photographs are actors or models.

Maintenance you still pay for

An oil or propane system that stays as backup still needs a tune-up, a tank inspection, and a delivery contract. Those costs do not disappear because a heat pump handled October and November. A heat pump adds its own filters, a possible condensate pump, and an electrical load. A fair comparison includes both maintenance lists. It also includes the hassle you are trying to leave behind: run-outs, price swings on a delivery ticket, and a boiler that fails on a holiday. Hassle is real and it is not a dollar I can assign for you.

If you are leaving oil entirely, ask about tank removal rules in your town before you count the removal as optional. A tank left in the ground or in a wet basement is not "free." Get that number from a contractor who does that work, in writing, and keep it out of the heating comparison until you have it.

Bring the comparison back to a decision you can actually make this month. If the boiler is unsafe, replace or repair it on safety grounds and treat the heat pump as a follow-on project. If the boiler is fine and the bills bother you, get a heat pump quote and a combustion tune-up quote and look at both. Sometimes the cheapest next step is a nozzle, a cleanup, and a thermostat schedule, not a new outdoor unit. Sometimes the tank, the chimney, and the age of the boiler make the heat pump the cleaner project. The only wrong move is signing a savings percentage that nobody tied to your gallons and your kilowatt-hours. The contractor can do that math with you. This page will not fake it.

If you want a worked example, do it with your own units on paper: gallons times price, times an honest efficiency, set next to kilowatt-hours times your all-in electric rate. If you cannot complete that line, you do not have a savings claim yet. You have a hypothesis. The contractor can help finish it during the visit. Call (603) 420-0791 and say you want that comparison, not a single percentage. Confirm license and insurance before any work. This site will not publish a statewide savings figure, because your rate and your house are the inputs.

Heat pump vs oil or propane heating cost in New Hampshire