Should Coolidge switch to a heat pump?
In Coolidge, a heat pump is the cheaper choice, and not by a little. Swap a failed furnace and AC for a heat pump rather than buying like-for-like, and the extra cost here runs $1,000 after a $2,000 federal tax credit. Lower bills claw that back: about $350 saved annually, for a payback of roughly 2.9 years. Nothing about that conclusion is generic — it's built entirely from Coolidge's own numbers.
The climate behind Coolidge's payback figure
1396 heating degree days pile up here every year, so Coolidge barely has a winter to speak of; the cooling side runs to 3813 cooling degree days, where summers are severe enough that cooling can dominate the annual bill. Sizing runs off the design temperature, not the average day: 27°F here (record low 27°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 3 for the standard class of unit this climate calls for. A standard ducted system is enough here; Coolidge's design temperature doesn't justify the cold-climate premium. Source: NOAA station CASA GRANDE MUNICIPAL ARPT, 14.2 miles from Coolidge — the closest one on record.
The month-to-month numbers for Coolidge
Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 1,178 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $689 a year. That compares with roughly 15 Mcf a year of gas at Coolidge's 18.58 per-Mcf rate — about $1,039 a year — against a local electricity rate of 15.55¢/kWh. Priced as a standalone purchase rather than against a like-for-like replacement, equipment payback runs about 31.4 years, for a 15-year net position $4,247 ahead.
Electric resistance heat in Coolidge, compared
Plenty of homes in Coolidge 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 $629 a year here — a heat pump moving heat rather than generating it needs far less electricity than resistance coils — so the extra $5,500 spent up front comes back in about 8.7 years.
How Coolidge compares nationally
Ranked against the other 3206 cities covered, Coolidge comes in at 2729 for heating severity — 1 would be the coldest place in the dataset — and 1954 by population, where 1 is largest. That's the mildest third of cities covered, where utility rates carry more of the answer than climate does.
What to do with this number in Coolidge
About 19,674 people live in Coolidge, Arizona, 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, it's worth getting quotes before your current system fails, not after.
Ask a local HVAC contractor for a quote before committing either way.
More on how this number was built
Every constant behind this page — the 3 seasonal COP, the degree-day corrections, the equipment costs — is documented in the methodology guide. See what Coolidge's figure looks like without the $2,000 federal credit in the guide to how that credit moves the payback window.