Will a heat pump pay off in Crowley, LA?
In Crowley, a heat pump pays for itself within a reasonable window. $1,000 is what Crowley would pay extra to go electric rather than replace the furnace and AC with the same again, once the $2,000 federal credit is applied. That premium is recovered through $276 of lower running costs every year, landing the payback clock at roughly 3.6 years. The window here is reasonable, and it's specific to what Crowley actually pays for power and gas.
How cold Crowley actually gets
Crowley barely has a winter to speak of — 1014 heating degree days a year against a 65°F base — and summers are severe enough that cooling can dominate the annual bill, at 3442 cooling degree days. Sizing runs off the design temperature, not the average day: 28.9°F here (record low 18°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 3.06 for the standard class of unit this climate calls for. Crowley's winters don't get cold enough to need the cold-climate premium — a standard unit holds up fine. Climate figures trace to the nearest NOAA station, LAFAYETTE REGIONAL AIRPORT, 23.1 miles from Crowley.
The month-to-month numbers for Crowley
Electricity use for heating alone comes out to about 839 kWh a year on the 2000-square-foot reference house; folding in cooling puts the electric bill near $510 a year. The gas furnace it replaces burns roughly 11 Mcf a year at 17.38 per Mcf here, for a running cost near $787 a year (electricity here runs 13.52¢/kWh). Buy it outright, not incrementally, and payback stretches to 39.8 years; over 15 years the net position sits $3,146 ahead.
Electric resistance heat in Crowley, compared
Plenty of homes in Crowley heat with electricity alone, no gas line involved. Swap the comparison to resistance heat instead of gas, and Crowley's answer improves. About $440 a year comes back this way, enough that the 12.5-year payback clears the $5,500 premium comfortably within the equipment's life.
Where Crowley ranks in this dataset
Ranked against the other 3206 cities covered, Crowley comes in at 2902 for heating severity — 1 would be the coldest place in the dataset — and 2942 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.
Next step for 11,216 people in Crowley
Crowley, Louisiana is home to about 11,216 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. Given the math above, Crowley is a place worth lining up quotes ahead of a breakdown, not waiting for one.
Get quotes from local HVAC contractors before deciding.
Where Crowley's figure comes from
Nothing above is a black box: the methodology guide shows the full arithmetic behind Crowley's 3.06 seasonal COP and payback figure. The $2,000 federal credit baked into Crowley's number is explained, with the before-and-after math, in the tax credit guide.