Is a heat pump worth it in Ashwaubenon?
In Ashwaubenon, a heat pump would cost more to run each year than what you have now. Swap a failed furnace and AC for a heat pump rather than buying like-for-like, and the extra cost here runs $3,500 after a $2,000 federal tax credit. Running costs here land $366 a year HIGHER than the furnace it replaces, so that premium is never recovered. There's no spin on that: Ashwaubenon's numbers say wait.
Why Ashwaubenon's climate drives this number
5968 heating degree days pile up here every year, so Ashwaubenon has a cold winter that leans hard on heating equipment; the cooling side runs to 605 cooling degree days, where summers add a moderate cooling load. Sizing runs off the design temperature, not the average day: -2.9°F here (record low -9°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 2.63 for the cold-climate class of unit this climate calls for. Below the 25°F line where a standard machine starts leaning on resistance backup, Ashwaubenon sits firmly in cold-climate territory, so that's the class of unit priced here. Climate figures trace to the nearest NOAA station, AUSTIN STRAUBEL INTERNATIONAL, 2.4 miles from Ashwaubenon.
Ashwaubenon's running-cost comparison, in dollars
Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 5,746 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $1,182 a year. That compares with roughly 62 Mcf a year of gas at Ashwaubenon's 10.74 per-Mcf rate — about $815 a year — against a local electricity rate of 18.87¢/kWh. Looked at as a full purchase rather than an incremental one, payback here is longer than the 15-year equipment life, leaving the 15-year total $8,991 behind.
The other scenario: no gas furnace to begin with
Plenty of homes in Ashwaubenon heat with electricity alone, no gas line involved. Swap the comparison to resistance heat instead of gas, and Ashwaubenon's answer improves. About $1,818 a year comes back this way, enough that the 4.4-year payback clears the $8,000 premium comfortably within the equipment's life.
How Ashwaubenon compares nationally
Among 3206 cities, Ashwaubenon's winter puts it at rank 249 for severity, while its size puts it at rank 2145 for population — 1 in both cases being the extreme. That's the coldest third of the dataset, where climate does most of the work behind this figure.
What to do with this number in Ashwaubenon
About 17,437 people live in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin, and every number on this page is what a contractor would actually work from when quoting a system here — the point isn't to replace that quote, it's to tell you whether to bother asking for one. Here, there's no cost penalty to waiting until your current furnace or AC actually needs replacing.
Get quotes from local HVAC contractors before deciding.
More on how this number was built
Nothing above is a black box: the methodology guide shows the full arithmetic behind Ashwaubenon's 2.63 seasonal COP and payback figure. Ashwaubenon's -2.9°F design temperature falls on the cold side of the 25°F cutoff the cold-climate unit guide walks through.