Should Conway switch to a heat pump?

Conway sits right on the fence — how long you'll own the house decides this one. 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 $359 saved annually, for a payback of roughly 9.8 years. It's a genuine toss-up here — Conway's numbers don't point clearly either way.

Conway's weather, in the numbers that matter

Conway has a mild winter by US standards — 2606 heating degree days a year against a 65°F base — and summers are hot enough that cooling matters as much as heating, at 2216 cooling degree days. Sizing runs off the design temperature, not the average day: 11.8°F here (record low -2.6°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 2.98 for the cold-climate class of unit this climate calls for. Below the 25°F line where a standard machine starts leaning on resistance backup, Conway sits firmly in cold-climate territory, so that's the class of unit priced here. Climate figures trace to the nearest NOAA station, LITTLE ROCK AFB AIRPORT, 21 miles from Conway.

What it actually costs to run, year to year

Electricity use for heating alone comes out to about 2,214 kWh a year on the 2000-square-foot reference house; folding in cooling puts the electric bill near $545 a year. Conway's gas rate of 19.25 per Mcf, applied to the 27 Mcf a year the furnace burns, puts its running cost near $904 a year, against 13.28¢ per kWh for electricity. Priced as a standalone purchase rather than against a like-for-like replacement, equipment payback runs about 37.6 years, for a 15-year net position $1,883 ahead.

Electric resistance heat in Conway, compared

Not every home in Conway has gas service. Compared with baseboard or electric-furnace resistance heat, the numbers shift in the heat pump’s favor. About $713 a year comes back this way, enough that the 11.2-year payback clears the $8,000 premium comfortably within the equipment's life.

How Conway compares nationally

Conway lands at position 2094 out of 3206 cities on heating severity (coldest is 1), and 548 out of 3206 by population size (biggest is 1). That's the middle third for winter severity among the cities covered here.

Deciding what's next in Conway, AR

Conway, Arkansas is home to about 70,711 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 Conway, nothing is lost by holding off until the current equipment genuinely fails.

Line up a few local HVAC quotes before you decide.

Where Conway's figure comes from

The methodology guide walks through exactly how Conway's 2.98 seasonal COP and the rest of this page's numbers get built. Conway's 11.8°F design temperature falls on the cold side of the 25°F cutoff the cold-climate unit guide walks through.