Heat Pump Payback in Camas, WA
Will a heat pump pay off in Camas, WA?
Camas technically pencils out, but only past the point the equipment would need replacing anyway. Against a like-for-like gas furnace and AC swap, going electric costs $5,500 more up front here. Lower bills claw that back: about $305 saved annually, for a payback of roughly 18 years. Camas's own numbers say this pencils out only in theory, not in practice.
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The climate behind Camas's payback figure
Degree days tell the story here: Camas racks up 3827 heating degree days each year (base 65°F), and summers add a moderate cooling load, with 635 cooling degree days on the cooling side. 19°F is the figure equipment gets sized against here, the 99th-percentile cold snap, not an average day, with a low of 14°F in the 2024 station record. Worked through the model, that's a seasonal COP of 3.16 on the cold-climate unit fit for this climate. Camas 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. Climate figures trace to the nearest NOAA station, Portland-Troutdale Airport, 3.7 miles from Camas.
What it actually costs to run, year to year
Electricity use for heating alone comes out to about 3,067 kWh a year on the 2000-square-foot reference house; folding in cooling puts the electric bill near $515 a year. Camas's gas rate of $17.62 per Mcf, applied to the 40 Mcf a year the furnace burns, puts the current furnace-and-AC running cost near $820 a year, against 14.27¢ per kWh for electricity. If the current system still worked and you replaced it anyway, the full cost would take longer than the 15-year equipment life to earn back; against buying a new furnace and AC regardless, the 15-year total lands $927 behind.
The break-even point in Camas
This result holds unless electricity climbs above 25.2¢/kWh (it is 14.27¢ now) or gas drops below $9.97 per Mcf (now $17.62); past either point, gas becomes the cheaper fuel in Camas. When quotes arrive, compare the heat pump price with a like-for-like furnace and AC replacement: at $305 a year saved, a difference under $2,135 pays back within 7 years here, and under $3,050 within 10.
The other scenario: no gas furnace to begin with
Gas isn't universal in Camas, many houses run on electric heat already. Compared with baseboard or electric-furnace resistance heat, the numbers shift in the heat pump’s favor. The saving here runs about $985 a year, which recovers the extra $10,000 spent going electric in roughly 10.1 years.
Camas against the rest of the country
Camas lands at position 1632 out of 3206 cities on heating severity (coldest is 1), and 1462 out of 3206 by population size (biggest is 1). That's the middle third for winter severity among the cities covered here.
Next step if you live in Camas
About 27,313 people live in Camas, Washington, 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, there's no cost penalty to waiting until your current furnace or AC actually needs replacing.
Ask a local HVAC contractor for a quote before committing either way.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide walks through exactly how Camas's 3.16 seasonal COP and the rest of this page's numbers get built. Camas's 19°F design temperature falls on the cold side of the 25°F cutoff the cold-climate unit guide walks through.