The right heating and cooling choice, decided by certified data
Heat pumps, central AC, mini-splits, window units, gas furnaces and air purifiers — 13,019 certified products (identical units sold under other brand names collapsed into one row) with the certified numbers (SEER2, HSPF2, COP at 5°F, AFUE, CADR) and what each one costs to run. No star ratings. No sales pitch. Just the data, so you can decide.
Getting ready for winter
Time to change the furnace filter
Pick the size printed on your old filter and see the lowest price per filter at MERV 8, 11 and 13. Most homes want MERV 11.
One room stays cold
What a space heater costs to run in your state, and when it is cheaper than turning up the furnace.
Do pricier space heaters heat more?
No. Almost every plug-in heater uses 1,500 watts and makes the same heat. We checked 59 room-size claims on Amazon.
Dry air, static and cracked lips
54 bestselling humidifiers checked against their own stated output and tank size.
A thermostat that cuts the heating bill
Six ENERGY STAR certified picks, checked for your wiring and for heat-pump backup heat.
Heat pump or furnace?
Which costs less to run at your energy prices, and which fits your climate.
What's going on at your place?
One room is too hot
Window AC or mini-split? Six questions — rent or own, noise, budget — and the data decides for your room, with the top pick either way.
No ductwork, want a permanent fix
A ductless mini-split heats and cools room by room — no ducts, quiet, efficient. Ranked by the certified numbers.
Heating bills feel too high
Compare a heat pump, gas furnace and baseboard at your energy prices — the honest math, in 30 seconds.
It gets seriously cold here
The only question that matters: does it still heat at 5°F? We rank the units by the two numbers that answer it.
Replacing central AC
Whole-house cooling with ductwork you already have. Ranked by SEER2 — the number that sets your summer bill.
Replacing a gas furnace
AFUE decides how much of your fuel becomes heat. Every residential gas furnace, ranked.
Allergies, dust or smoke indoors
Certified CADR data — how fast a purifier actually clears the air — matched to your room size and trigger.
Water heater dying?
Heat pump, electric, gas or propane — certified UEF and computed annual running cost for every type, before you replace it.
Just comparing everything
The full database: every certified unit, one normalized record each, filter and sort however you decide.
Our money stat
$/MMBtu — the cost of a million BTU of heat
Every vendor quotes the sticker price. None quote this: what it costs to deliver heat, month after month. It's the number that makes an efficient heat pump the cheapest box in the house to run — and the one we compute on every page.
Start where you are
Tools & Calculators
Operating cost, sizing, rebates, payback — the math vendors skip.
Best HVAC
Verdict guides decided by certified specs, not vendor fluff.
Product Database
Search 12,240 heat pumps by SEER2, HSPF2, COP at 5°F and price.
Rebates & Incentives
Current federal, state and utility money — freshness is the moat.
Costs
What it costs to buy — and to run for 15 years.
Learn
Read SEER2, HSPF2 and COP at 5°F before you spend $10k.
The wedge page
Best Cold-Climate Heat Pumps 2026
The one question that matters when it's frigid: does it still heat? We rank 5,544 cold-climate heat pumps by certified COP and heating capacity at 5°F — the numbers vendors bury. Top of the field right now: Arcoaire DLC-series DLCPRBH18AAK at COP 2.89× at 5°F.
The product database is open
Search all 12,240 heat pumps by brand, SEER2, HSPF2, COP at 5°F, tonnage, refrigerant and price — every row links to a full spec page. Furnace and central-AC browse, ZIP rebate finder and sizing tools come next.
Open the database →What we refuse to do
- No star ratings, no opinion scores. Verifiable facts and transparent computed metrics only.
- No invented specs. Every efficiency and capacity number traces to AHRI or ENERGY STAR. Missing means "not published" — never a guess.
- No paid placement. Rankings are the data, sorted. You can re-sort them yourself.
Read the full methodology → · Written by Erin Rose.