Should Brunswick switch to a heat pump?

Brunswick clears a genuine payback here, inside a reasonable stretch of years. Swap a failed furnace and AC for a heat pump rather than buying like-for-like, and the extra cost here runs $1,000 after a $2,000 federal tax credit. Brunswick's residents would see roughly $301 a year back in running costs, putting the payback around 3.3 years. The window here is reasonable, and it's specific to what Brunswick actually pays for power and gas.

How cold Brunswick actually gets

1125 heating degree days pile up here every year, so Brunswick barely has a winter to speak of; the cooling side runs to 2979 cooling degree days, where summers are severe enough that cooling can dominate the annual bill. The 99% winter design temperature here — the cold snap equipment must be sized for, not the seasonal average — is 32°F, against a record low of 26.6°F. That puts the seasonal coefficient of performance at 3.15 for the recommended standard unit. Brunswick's winters don't get cold enough to need the cold-climate premium — a standard unit holds up fine. Climate figures trace to the nearest NOAA station, MALCOLM MC KINNON AIRPORT, 4.6 miles from Brunswick.

The month-to-month numbers for Brunswick

Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 904 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $513 a year. The gas furnace it replaces burns roughly 12 Mcf a year at 20.42 per Mcf here, for a running cost near $815 a year (electricity here runs 14.90¢/kWh). Buy it outright, not incrementally, and payback stretches to 36.5 years; over 15 years the net position sits $3,520 ahead.

Electric resistance heat in Brunswick, compared

Gas isn't universal in Brunswick — many houses run on electric heat already. Swap the comparison to resistance heat instead of gas, and Brunswick's answer improves. The saving here runs about $487 a year, which recovers the extra $5,500 spent going electric in roughly 11.3 years.

Brunswick against the rest of the country

Among 3206 cities, Brunswick's winter puts it at rank 2843 for severity, while its size puts it at rank 2346 for population — 1 in both cases being the extreme. That's the mildest third of cities covered, where utility rates carry more of the answer than climate does.

Next step for 15,520 people in Brunswick

Brunswick, Georgia is home to about 15,520 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. Given the math above, Brunswick is a place worth lining up quotes ahead of a breakdown, not waiting for one.

Ask a local HVAC contractor for a quote before committing either way.

Reading further on this page's numbers

The methodology guide walks through exactly how Brunswick's 3.15 seasonal COP and the rest of this page's numbers get built. The $2,000 federal credit baked into Brunswick's number is explained, with the before-and-after math, in the tax credit guide.