Is a heat pump worth it in Blackfoot?

In Blackfoot, a heat pump would cost more to run each year than what you have now. $3,500 is what Blackfoot 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. The heat pump would cost about $187 more a year to run than the furnace it replaces — a premium with no payback. That's Blackfoot's own climate and rates talking, not a hedge or a caveat.

Blackfoot's weather, in the numbers that matter

Blackfoot has a cold winter that leans hard on heating equipment — 6470 heating degree days a year against a 65°F base — and summers add a moderate cooling load, at 638 cooling degree days. Sizing runs off the design temperature, not the average day: 3°F here (record low -14.1°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 2.77 for the cold-climate class of unit this climate calls for. Blackfoot 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. These numbers come from POCATELLO REGIONAL AIRPORT, the closest NOAA station, 22.1 miles out.

The month-to-month numbers for Blackfoot

Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 5,914 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $809 a year. Blackfoot's gas rate of 7.69 per Mcf, applied to the 67 Mcf a year the furnace burns, puts its running cost near $622 a year, against 12.52¢ per kWh for electricity. Buy it outright, not incrementally, and payback stretches to beyond the 15-year equipment life; over 15 years the net position sits $6,303 behind.

If your home heats with electric baseboard instead of gas

Plenty of homes in Blackfoot heat with electricity alone, no gas line involved. Compared with baseboard or electric-furnace resistance heat, the numbers shift in the heat pump’s favor. Switching saves about $1,346 a year here — a heat pump moving heat rather than generating it needs far less electricity than resistance coils — so the extra $8,000 spent up front comes back in about 5.9 years.

Blackfoot against the rest of the country

Blackfoot lands at position 95 out of 3206 cities on heating severity (coldest is 1), and 2623 out of 3206 by population size (biggest is 1). That's the coldest third of the dataset, where climate does most of the work behind this figure.

Next step for 13,224 people in Blackfoot

Blackfoot, Idaho is home to about 13,224 people, and the figures above are the same ones a local HVAC contractor uses to size and quote a system — this site doesn't guess where a real quote would land, it just tells you whether it's worth asking for one. In Blackfoot, nothing is lost by holding off until the current equipment genuinely fails.

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 Blackfoot's 2.77 seasonal COP and payback figure. At a 3°F design temperature, Blackfoot sits in cold-climate territory; the guide to that class of unit explains why.