Heat Pump Payback in Caledonia, WI
Should Caledonia switch to a heat pump?
In Caledonia, a heat pump would cost more to run each year than what you have now. Swap a failed furnace and AC for a heat pump rather than buying like-for-like, and the extra cost here runs $5,500. Unfortunately the electric bill outweighs the gas bill it replaces by about $278 a year here, so the extra spend stays unrecovered. That's Caledonia's own climate and rates talking, not a hedge or a caveat.
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Caledonia is one of 3206 cities covered here, each run through the same model. Search another below.
How cold Caledonia actually gets
Degree days tell the story here: Caledonia racks up 5287 heating degree days each year (base 65°F), and summers add a moderate cooling load, with 796 cooling degree days on the cooling side. The 99% winter design temperature here, the cold snap equipment must be sized for, not the seasonal average, is 0°F, and the coldest daily reading in the 2024 station record was -9°F. That puts the seasonal coefficient of performance at 2.7 for the recommended cold-climate unit. Caledonia 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. Source: NOAA station John H Batten Airport, 4.1 miles from Caledonia, the closest one on record.
Caledonia's running-cost comparison, in dollars
A 2000-square-foot house here would pull roughly 4,958 heating kilowatt-hours annually on top of cooling, totalling about $1,064 a year on electricity. That compares with roughly 55 Mcf a year of gas at Caledonia's $10.74 per-Mcf rate, about $786 a year with the old AC included, against a local electricity rate of 18.87¢/kWh. Because the heat pump costs more to run here, the gap only widens with time: $9,665 behind after 15 years compared with replacing the furnace and AC like-for-like.
What would change Caledonia's answer
For the verdict in Caledonia to flip, electricity would need to drop to about 12.8¢/kWh from 18.87¢, or gas climb past $15.78 per Mcf from $10.74. A utility offering a lower heat pump rate can change this. Until then, no quote price makes a heat pump pay back against gas in Caledonia; the case for one here rests on comfort, cooling, or replacing electric heat instead.
Electric resistance heat in Caledonia, compared
Plenty of homes in Caledonia 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 $1,657 a year here, a heat pump moving heat rather than generating it needs far less electricity than resistance coils, so the extra $10,000 spent up front comes back in about 6 years.
How Caledonia compares nationally
Ranked against the other 3206 cities covered, Caledonia comes in at 502 for heating severity, 1 would be the coldest place in the dataset, and 1590 by population, where 1 is largest. That's the coldest third of the dataset, where climate does most of the work behind this figure.
Deciding what's next in Caledonia, WI
Caledonia, Wisconsin is home to about 25,240 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 Caledonia, nothing is lost by holding off until the current equipment genuinely fails.
Ask a local HVAC contractor for a quote before committing either way.
Where Caledonia's figure comes from
Nothing above is a black box: the methodology guide shows the full arithmetic behind Caledonia's 2.7 seasonal COP and payback figure. Caledonia's 0°F design temperature is below the 25°F line, which is why a cold-climate unit is the right call here, see what that changes in the cold-climate unit guide.