Propane and electricity each heat about 42 percent of owner homes in the Purcellville ZIP area that Philomont’s Census figures come from, and the Census counts a heat pump as electric heat. That makes two jobs. A propane house replaces a furnace and an air conditioner together, $8,898 to $23,000 installed. An electric house often replaces one heat pump system, $8,499 to $21,650 installed, and the HVAC estimator gives your house its own number.
The median owner home dates to 2000, so an original pair has run into a third decade. About 48 percent of homes there went up since 2000, which puts many systems in middle age, and roughly a quarter date from before 1980. When the furnace and air conditioner are the same age and both are failing, doing both is one project. When the air conditioner is newer, the furnace alone is $4,285 to $14,040 installed.
Winter sets the weight of the job. The Purcellville station counts 4,942 heating degree days against 1,050 cooling, and its January low averages 24.5F. Philomont logged a low of -2F on January 23, 2025, so a heat pump here has to carry January. Summer is no rest either: 30.2 days a year reach 90F, and western Loudoun saw heat indices above 110F on July 28, 2023.
Oil heats about 6 percent of owner homes in the ZIP area. Oil burners are outside our work, yet a heat pump or a propane furnace can take that burner’s place, and both are ours to price. About 85 percent of homes in the ZIP area are detached houses, so an outdoor unit can usually sit on its own lot, away from a shared wall.