Will a heat pump pay off in Bluffdale, UT?

In Bluffdale, the extra upfront cost technically comes back, just not before the equipment wears out. 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. That premium is recovered through $110 of lower running costs every year, landing the payback clock at roughly 31.9 years. That's a technicality, not a recommendation, for anyone actually living in Bluffdale.

How cold Bluffdale actually gets

Degree days tell the story here: Bluffdale racks up 4667 heating degree days each year (base 65°F), and summers are hot enough that cooling matters as much as heating, with 1804 cooling degree days on the cooling side. Sizing runs off the design temperature, not the average day: 19°F here (record low 12.2°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 3.16 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, Bluffdale sits firmly in cold-climate territory, so that's the class of unit priced here. Source: NOAA station SALT LAKE CITY INTERNATIONAL, 21 miles from Bluffdale — the closest one on record.

Bluffdale's running-cost comparison, in dollars

Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 3,740 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $692 a year. The gas furnace it replaces burns roughly 49 Mcf a year at 10.19 per Mcf here, for a running cost near $802 a year (electricity here runs 13.12¢/kWh). Looked at as a full purchase rather than an incremental one, payback here is roughly 123.2 years, leaving the 15-year total $1,856 behind.

If your home heats with electric baseboard instead of gas

Plenty of homes in Bluffdale heat with electricity alone, no gas line involved. Swap the comparison to resistance heat instead of gas, and Bluffdale's answer improves. Switching saves about $1,165 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 6.9 years.

Bluffdale against the rest of the country

Ranked against the other 3206 cities covered, Bluffdale comes in at 1038 for heating severity — 1 would be the coldest place in the dataset — and 1981 by population, where 1 is largest. That's the coldest third of the dataset, where climate does most of the work behind this figure.

Next step for 19,393 people in Bluffdale

Bluffdale, Utah is home to about 19,393 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 Bluffdale, nothing is lost by holding off until the current equipment genuinely fails.

Line up a few local HVAC quotes before you decide.

Reading further on this page's numbers

Every constant behind this page — the 3.16 seasonal COP, the degree-day corrections, the equipment costs — is documented in the methodology guide. At a 19°F design temperature, Bluffdale sits in cold-climate territory; the guide to that class of unit explains why.