On Census forms a heat pump shows up as electric heat, and Herndon has a lot of it. Inside the town it’s 6 of every 10 owner homes. Dranesville, nearly all single-family houses, most from the 1970s and 80s, matches that, and Hutchison, a smaller Census area of mostly townhouses and condos, tops it at about 7 in 10. Franklin Farm sits near half; Floris and McNair, where gas leads, fall under 4 in 10.
In the town’s 1970s and 80s townhouses, about a quarter of its homes, the indoor half usually hides in a hall closet or the attic: an air handler with electric backup strips, its condenser on a concrete pad behind the house. The two halves are rated as a pair, so a replacement swaps both; an old air handler on a new outdoor unit rarely delivers what the new one was bought for.
Dranesville is nearly all detached houses, and many from that era carry two systems, one for the bedrooms and one for the main floors, each on its own clock. When one fails, check the other’s date; if they went in together, have both priced while the tech is measuring.
Floris, McNair and about half of Franklin Farm have gas, and there the usual move is dual fuel: the outdoor unit that was an air conditioner becomes a heat pump, and the furnace stays on for the coldest nights. Washington Gas puts money toward that, with a strict rule: the heat pump must take out a central air conditioner, and a heat pump traded for a newer heat pump gets nothing. It pays its own customers only, and Fairfax County says some Herndon homes are on Columbia Gas of Virginia. Our guide to dual fuel carries the amounts.