Crowley, TX: the heat pump payback math
This one's marginal in Crowley: it only clears if you stay long enough. Swap a failed furnace and AC for a heat pump rather than buying like-for-like, and the extra cost here runs $3,500 after a $2,000 federal tax credit. Lower bills claw that back: about $338 saved annually, for a payback of roughly 10.4 years. Whether that's worth it in Crowley depends on how many years you expect to own the place.
The climate behind Crowley's payback figure
Crowley has a mild winter by US standards — 1826 heating degree days a year against a 65°F base — and summers are severe enough that cooling can dominate the annual bill, at 2994 cooling degree days. The 99% winter design temperature here — the cold snap equipment must be sized for, not the seasonal average — is 14°F, against a record low of 10.4°F. That puts the seasonal coefficient of performance at 3.04 for the recommended cold-climate unit. Below the 25°F line where a standard machine starts leaning on resistance backup, Crowley sits firmly in cold-climate territory, so that's the class of unit priced here. Source: NOAA station FORT WORTH SPINKS AIRPORT, 3.1 miles from Crowley — the closest one on record.
What it actually costs to run, year to year
A 2000-square-foot house here would pull roughly 1,521 heating kilowatt-hours annually on top of cooling, totalling about $658 a year on electricity. That compares with roughly 19 Mcf a year of gas at Crowley's 19.42 per-Mcf rate — about $996 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 39.9 years, for a 15-year net position $1,571 ahead.
Electric resistance heat in Crowley, compared
Plenty of homes in Crowley heat with electricity alone, no gas line involved. Against electric-resistance heat — baseboard or an electric furnace, both 100% efficient but still just resistance — the case for switching gets stronger here. Switching saves about $715 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 11.2 years.
Crowley against the rest of the country
Among 3206 cities, Crowley's winter puts it at rank 2529 for severity, while its size puts it at rank 1884 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 Crowley, TX
About 20,483 people live in Crowley, Texas, 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, there's no cost penalty to waiting until your current furnace or AC actually needs replacing.
Ask a local HVAC contractor for a quote before committing either way.
Where Crowley's figure comes from
Every constant behind this page — the 3.04 seasonal COP, the degree-day corrections, the equipment costs — is documented in the methodology guide. At a 14°F design temperature, Crowley sits in cold-climate territory; the guide to that class of unit explains why.