Should Ballwin switch to a heat pump?
In Ballwin, the extra upfront cost technically comes back, just not before the equipment wears out. $3,500 is what Ballwin would pay extra to go electric rather than replace the furnace and AC with the same again, once the $2,000 federal credit is applied. Ballwin's residents would see roughly $219 a year back in running costs, putting the payback around 16 years. Ballwin's own numbers say this pencils out only in theory, not in practice.
Why Ballwin's climate drives this number
3990 heating degree days pile up here every year, so Ballwin has a real but manageable winter; the cooling side runs to 1370 cooling degree days, where summers are hot enough that cooling matters as much as heating. 0°F is the figure equipment gets sized against here — the 99th-percentile cold snap, not an average day — with a record low of -8°F on file. Worked through the model, that's a seasonal COP of 2.7 on the cold-climate unit fit for this climate. Ballwin 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, SPIRIT OF ST LOUIS AIRPORT, 7.2 miles from Ballwin.
What it actually costs to run, year to year
Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 3,742 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $630 a year. Ballwin's gas rate of 14.94 per Mcf, applied to the 42 Mcf a year the furnace burns, puts its running cost near $849 a year, against 12.83¢ per kWh for electricity. Looked at as a full purchase rather than an incremental one, payback here is roughly 61.7 years, leaving the 15-year total $220 behind.
The other scenario: no gas furnace to begin with
Plenty of homes in Ballwin heat with electricity alone, no gas line involved. 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 $894 a year, which recovers the extra $8,000 spent going electric in roughly 8.9 years.
Ballwin against the rest of the country
Ballwin lands at position 1516 out of 3206 cities on heating severity (coldest is 1), and 1314 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 Ballwin
About 31,036 people live in Ballwin, Missouri, 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.
Ask a local HVAC contractor for a quote before committing either way.
Where Ballwin's figure comes from
The methodology guide walks through exactly how Ballwin's 2.7 seasonal COP and the rest of this page's numbers get built. Ballwin's 0°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.