Will a heat pump pay off in Boerne, TX?
In Boerne, a heat pump is the cheaper choice, and not by a little. Against a like-for-like gas furnace and AC swap, going electric costs $1,000 more up front here (already netting out a $2,000 tax credit). Boerne's residents would see roughly $337 a year back in running costs, putting the payback around 3 years. Nothing about that conclusion is generic — it's built entirely from Boerne's own numbers.
The climate behind Boerne's payback figure
1016 heating degree days pile up here every year, so Boerne barely has a winter to speak of; the cooling side runs to 3775 cooling degree days, where summers are severe enough that cooling can dominate the annual bill. 27°F is the figure equipment gets sized against here — the 99th-percentile cold snap, not an average day — with a record low of 18°F on file. Worked through the model, that's a seasonal COP of 3 on the standard unit fit for this climate. A standard ducted system is enough here; Boerne's design temperature doesn't justify the cold-climate premium. Source: NOAA station SAN ANTONIO INTERNATIONAL AIR, 22.2 miles from Boerne — the closest one on record.
The month-to-month numbers for Boerne
Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 858 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $658 a year. The gas furnace it replaces burns roughly 11 Mcf a year at 19.42 per Mcf here, for a running cost near $996 a year (electricity here runs 16.15¢/kWh). Priced as a standalone purchase rather than against a like-for-like replacement, equipment payback runs about 32.6 years, for a 15-year net position $4,059 ahead.
If your home heats with electric baseboard instead of gas
Not every home in Boerne has gas service. Swap the comparison to resistance heat instead of gas, and Boerne's answer improves. The saving here runs about $547 a year, which recovers the extra $5,500 spent going electric in roughly 10 years.
Where Boerne ranks in this dataset
Boerne lands at position 2895 out of 3206 cities on heating severity (coldest is 1), and 1735 out of 3206 by population size (biggest is 1). That's the mildest third of cities covered, where utility rates carry more of the answer than climate does.
Next step for 22,712 people in Boerne
About 22,712 people live in Boerne, Texas, 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, it's worth getting quotes before your current system fails, not after.
Get quotes from local HVAC contractors before deciding.
Where Boerne's figure comes from
Every constant behind this page — the 3 seasonal COP, the degree-day corrections, the equipment costs — is documented in the methodology guide. See what Boerne's figure looks like without the $2,000 federal credit in the guide to how that credit moves the payback window.