Lower Bills, Cleaner Air: Heat Pump Benefits for Homes Relying on Delivered Fuels

This document details the technical assumptions used to analyze the benefits of heat pumps over delivered fuels in the United States. It specifies the use of 2020 EIA RECS microdata for building archetypes, 2024 state-average energy prices, and specific efficiency ratings (HSPF2, SEER2, and UEF) for air source heat pumps and heat pump water heaters based on current market models and climate zones.

• The analysis determined building stock shares for home archetypes per state and climate zone based on factors including building type, year, space heating fuel source and equipment, air conditioning type, and household income, using 2020 EIA RECS microdata.
• Electric volumetric prices for the analysis were derived from 2024 residential state-average total revenue from the EIA, minus utility fixed charge revenue, divided by residential sales in kWh.
• The analysis assumed specific rated efficiencies for heat pump technologies based on current market models: Heat Pump Water Heaters (HPWH) were assigned a uniform energy factor (UEF) of 3.7, while Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHP) varied by ducting and climate zone, with HSPF2 values ranging from 8 to 9.5 and SEER2 values from 16 to 19.

APA

RMI (n.d.). Lower Bills, Cleaner Air: Heat Pump Benefits for Homes Relying on Delivered Fuels. https://rmi.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Heat-Pump-vs-Delivered-Fuel-Analysis-Assumptions.pdf

Chicago

RMI. Lower Bills, Cleaner Air: Heat Pump Benefits for Homes Relying on Delivered Fuels. n.d. https://rmi.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Heat-Pump-vs-Delivered-Fuel-Analysis-Assumptions.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Lower Bills, Cleaner Air: Heat Pump Benefits for Homes Relying on Delivered Fuels |url=https://rmi.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Heat-Pump-vs-Delivered-Fuel-Analysis-Assumptions.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmindlower, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Lower Bills, Cleaner Air: Heat Pump Benefits for Homes Relying on Delivered Fuels}}, institution = {RMI}, url = {https://rmi.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Heat-Pump-vs-Delivered-Fuel-Analysis-Assumptions.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }