Colorado HVAC leads

How Colorado homes are heated

Utility gas is the main heating fuel in most Colorado owner homes. The Census Bureau’s table B25117 (ACS 5-year 2020-2024) counts 1,161,797 owner-occupied homes on utility gas, 73.9% of the 1,571,735 total and the fifth highest gas share among the states. Electricity comes second at 17.0%, and bottled, tank or LP gas (propane) heats another 5.8%.

Across all occupied homes, owners and renters together, table B25040 (2020-2024 ACS) puts utility gas at 66.4% and electricity at 25.6%, so rented units lean a little more electric than owned ones.

Why a buyer looks at fuel: it predicts the hardware on a job. A gas home usually means a forced-air furnace, often paired with a central air conditioner, while a propane home means a furnace or boiler fed from a tank on the property. The table describes Colorado housing, not the share of requests that come from any fuel group.

Colorado HVAC contractor licensing

Colorado’s Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) licenses many building trades through its Division of Professions and Occupations, including plumbers through the State Plumbing Board, which has sat within the division since 1970. On its home and repair page, DORA tells homeowners that not every home repair occupation is licensed by the state and asks them to check with their city before hiring an unlicensed professional.

For an HVAC buyer, that means a credential check in Colorado may involve the city or county where a job sits as well as DORA’s license lookup. Technicians who handle refrigerant also need federal certification under EPA Section 608, which applies in every state.

Colorado heat pump rebates

The Colorado Home Energy Rebate Program, run by the Colorado Energy Office, pays rebates through registered contractors. Its status as of October 8, 2026:

• Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates (HEAR): eligible upgrades include ENERGY STAR cold climate heat pumps and heat pumps for space heating and cooling. The single-family program is closed for both Region 1 (the Front Range) and Region 2 (all other counties), per an August 2026 update. Rebates for small multifamily buildings are listed for 2026.
• Home Efficiency Rebates (HER): whole-home efficiency improvements, listed as available to manufactured and mobile homes and large multifamily buildings in 2026.
• Region 1 counties: Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Clear Creek, Denver, Douglas, Elbert, El Paso, Gilpin, Jefferson, Larimer, Teller and Weld, which include nine of the ten counties in the table below (Mesa is in Region 2).

Program rules and funding change, so a buyer quoting heat pump work in Colorado should read the Energy Office page on the day of the quote rather than rely on this summary.

Reading the Colorado numbers before a campaign

Three points come out of the official figures above for a buyer sizing up Colorado HVAC work:

• Furnaces carry the market. With 6,551 heating degree days in 2025 and 73.9% of owner homes on utility gas in the 2020-2024 ACS, gas furnace repair and replacement fits most Colorado owner homes. A crew without gas experience covers a small slice of the state.
• Cooling is a shorter season. The 352 cooling degree days in the NCEI series are a fraction of the heating total, so air conditioning requests bunch into a few summer months.
• Heat pump rebates have paused for single-family homes. The Colorado Energy Office lists the HEAR single-family program as closed in both regions. A buyer that sells heat pumps should not build quotes around that rebate until the page says it has reopened.

These points describe Colorado housing, weather and programs. They do not say how many leads exist in any county or metro.