Is a heat pump worth it in Burbank?

In Burbank, a heat pump would cost more to run each year than what you have now. $3,500 is what Burbank 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 $151 more a year to run than the furnace it replaces — a premium with no payback. That's Burbank's own climate and rates talking, not a hedge or a caveat.

Burbank's weather, in the numbers that matter

4543 heating degree days pile up here every year, so Burbank has a real but manageable winter; the cooling side runs to 1348 cooling degree days, where summers are hot enough that cooling matters as much as heating. The 99% winter design temperature here — the cold snap equipment must be sized for, not the seasonal average — is 1.9°F, against a record low of -9°F. That puts the seasonal coefficient of performance at 2.75 for the recommended cold-climate unit. A cold-climate unit is the right call in Burbank — below 25°F design temperature, a standard heat pump leans hard on electric-resistance backup, which erases most of the savings. Source: NOAA station CHICAGO MIDWAY INTL ARPT, 3 miles from Burbank — the closest one on record.

Burbank's running-cost comparison, in dollars

Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 4,183 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $1,016 a year. Burbank's gas rate of 11.25 per Mcf, applied to the 47 Mcf a year the furnace burns, puts its running cost near $865 a year, against 19.06¢ per kWh for electricity. Priced as a standalone purchase rather than against a like-for-like replacement, equipment payback runs past the 15-year equipment life, for a 15-year net position $5,767 behind.

Electric resistance heat in Burbank, compared

Gas isn't universal in Burbank — many houses run on electric heat already. Compared with baseboard or electric-furnace resistance heat, the numbers shift in the heat pump’s favor. About $1,509 a year comes back this way, enough that the 5.3-year payback clears the $8,000 premium comfortably within the equipment's life.

Where Burbank ranks in this dataset

Ranked against the other 3206 cities covered, Burbank comes in at 1152 for heating severity — 1 would be the coldest place in the dataset — and 1402 by population, where 1 is largest. That's the middle third for winter severity among the cities covered here.

Deciding what's next in Burbank, IL

Burbank, Illinois is home to about 28,606 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 Burbank, nothing is lost by holding off until the current equipment genuinely fails.

Get quotes from local HVAC contractors before deciding.

Reading further on this page's numbers

The methodology guide walks through exactly how Burbank's 2.75 seasonal COP and the rest of this page's numbers get built. Burbank's 1.9°F design temperature falls on the cold side of the 25°F cutoff the cold-climate unit guide walks through.