Heat Pump Payback in Covington, LA
Should Covington switch to a heat pump?
This one's marginal in Covington: it only clears if you stay long enough. $3,000 is what Covington would pay extra to go electric rather than replace the furnace and AC with the same again. That premium is recovered through $258 of lower running costs every year, landing the payback clock at roughly 11.6 years. It's a genuine toss-up here, Covington's numbers don't point clearly either way.
Not the city you meant?
This runs the same numbers for 3206 US cities, not just Covington. Look one up here.
Covington's weather, in the numbers that matter
Degree days tell the story here: Covington racks up 1363 heating degree days each year (base 65°F), and summers are severe enough that cooling can dominate the annual bill, with 2799 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 26.6°F, and the coldest daily reading in the 2024 station record was 15.6°F. That puts the seasonal coefficient of performance at 2.99 for the recommended standard unit. Covington's winters don't get cold enough to need the cold-climate premium, a standard unit holds up fine. These numbers come from Hammond Municipal Airport, the closest NOAA station, 18.4 miles out.
What it actually costs to run, year to year
Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 1,154 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $479 a year. That compares with roughly 14 Mcf a year of gas at Covington's $17.38 per-Mcf rate, about $737 a year with the old AC included, against a local electricity rate of 13.52¢/kWh. Priced as a standalone purchase, with a working furnace ripped out early, payback would take longer than the 15-year equipment life. Measured against the like-for-like replacement instead, a household here ends 15 years $877 ahead.
What would change Covington's answer
In Covington the cooling savings outweigh the extra electricity for heating, so no plausible change in the electricity rate would make the old furnace and AC cheaper to run. A useful quote test for Covington: the heat pump is worth it within a decade if it costs less than $2,580 more than replacing the furnace and AC, and within 7 years if the gap is under $1,806.
Electric resistance heat in Covington, compared
Gas isn't universal in Covington, 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 gap still doesn't close: the $7,500 incremental cost outlasts the 15-year equipment life here even against resistance heat.
Covington against the rest of the country
Ranked against the other 3206 cities covered, Covington comes in at 2745 for heating severity, 1 would be the coldest place in the dataset, and 2864 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 Covington
Covington, Louisiana is home to about 11,686 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 Covington, nothing is lost by holding off until the current equipment genuinely fails.
Line up a few local HVAC quotes before you decide.
Reading further on this page's numbers
Every constant behind this page, the 2.99 seasonal COP, the degree-day corrections, the equipment costs, is documented in the methodology guide. Homes in Covington without gas service should read the electric-resistance comparison instead, the numbers there differ from the gas case above.