Is a heat pump worth it in Atchison?

The payback math works in Atchison on paper, past the equipment's own working life. Against a like-for-like gas furnace and AC swap, going electric costs $3,500 more up front here (already netting out a $2,000 tax credit). Atchison's residents would see roughly $114 a year back in running costs, putting the payback around 30.7 years. Atchison's own numbers say this pencils out only in theory, not in practice.

The climate behind Atchison's payback figure

Atchison has a real but manageable winter — 4269 heating degree days a year against a 65°F base — and summers are hot enough that cooling matters as much as heating, at 1478 cooling degree days. -7.1°F is the figure equipment gets sized against here — the 99th-percentile cold snap, not an average day — with a record low of -13°F on file. Worked through the model, that's a seasonal COP of 2.53 on the cold-climate unit fit for this climate. Atchison needs the cold-climate class of unit: past a 25°F design temperature a standard heat pump falls back on resistance backup often enough to eat the savings. Climate figures trace to the nearest NOAA station, ROSECRANS MEMORIAL AIRPORT, 18.5 miles from Atchison.

What it actually costs to run, year to year

A 2000-square-foot house here would pull roughly 4,273 heating kilowatt-hours annually on top of cooling, totalling about $833 a year on electricity. Atchison's gas rate of 14.81 per Mcf, applied to the 44 Mcf a year the furnace burns, puts its running cost near $947 a year, against 15.05¢ per kWh for electricity. Priced as a standalone purchase rather than against a like-for-like replacement, equipment payback runs about 118.4 years, for a 15-year net position $1,789 behind.

Electric resistance heat in Atchison, compared

Gas isn't universal in Atchison — many houses run on electric heat already. Against electric-resistance heat — baseboard or an electric furnace, both 100% efficient but still just resistance — the case for switching gets stronger here. The saving here runs about $1,082 a year, which recovers the extra $8,000 spent going electric in roughly 7.4 years.

Atchison against the rest of the country

Atchison lands at position 1358 out of 3206 cities on heating severity (coldest is 1), and 3024 out of 3206 by population size (biggest is 1). That's the middle third for winter severity among the cities covered here.

What to do with this number in Atchison

About 10,813 people live in Atchison, Kansas, 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.

Where Atchison's figure comes from

The methodology guide walks through exactly how Atchison's 2.53 seasonal COP and the rest of this page's numbers get built. Atchison's -7.1°F design temperature is below the 25°F line, which is why a cold-climate unit is the right call here — see what that changes in the cold-climate unit guide.