Carrollton, TX: the heat pump payback math
This one's marginal in Carrollton: it only clears if you stay long enough. Against a like-for-like gas furnace and AC swap, going electric costs $3,500 more up front here (already netting out a $2,000 tax credit). Lower bills claw that back: about $361 saved annually, for a payback of roughly 9.7 years. It's a genuine toss-up here — Carrollton's numbers don't point clearly either way.
Carrollton's weather, in the numbers that matter
Carrollton has a mild winter by US standards — 1620 heating degree days a year against a 65°F base — and summers are severe enough that cooling can dominate the annual bill, at 3408 cooling degree days. Sizing runs off the design temperature, not the average day: 18.9°F here (record low 9.5°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 3.15 for the cold-climate class of unit this climate calls for. Carrollton 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, ADDISON AIRPORT, 4 miles from Carrollton.
Carrollton's running-cost comparison, in dollars
Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 1,302 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $680 a year. That compares with roughly 17 Mcf a year of gas at Carrollton's 19.42 per-Mcf rate — about $1,041 a year — against a local electricity rate of 16.15¢/kWh. Priced as a standalone purchase rather than against a like-for-like replacement, equipment payback runs about 37.4 years, for a 15-year net position $1,920 ahead.
Electric resistance heat in Carrollton, compared
Gas isn't universal in Carrollton — many houses run on electric heat already. Swap the comparison to resistance heat instead of gas, and Carrollton's answer improves. Switching saves about $696 a year here — a heat pump moving heat rather than generating it needs far less electricity than resistance coils — so the extra $8,000 spent up front comes back in about 11.5 years.
Where Carrollton ranks in this dataset
Among 3206 cities, Carrollton's winter puts it at rank 2644 for severity, while its size puts it at rank 217 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.
Deciding what's next in Carrollton, TX
Carrollton, Texas is home to about 135,456 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 Carrollton, nothing is lost by holding off until the current equipment genuinely fails.
Line up a few local HVAC quotes before you decide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide walks through exactly how Carrollton's 3.15 seasonal COP and the rest of this page's numbers get built. At a 18.9°F design temperature, Carrollton sits in cold-climate territory; the guide to that class of unit explains why.