Heat Pump Payback in DeForest, WI
Is a heat pump worth it in DeForest?
In DeForest, a heat pump would cost more to run each year than what you have now. Against a like-for-like gas furnace and AC swap, going electric costs $5,500 more up front here. Running costs here land $403 a year higher than the furnace it replaces, so that premium is never recovered. That's DeForest's own climate and rates talking, not a hedge or a caveat.
Compare against another city
Landed on DeForest by mistake, or want to compare it against somewhere else? Search the other 3206 cities below.
DeForest's weather, in the numbers that matter
DeForest has a cold winter that leans hard on heating equipment, 5775 heating degree days a year against a 65°F base, and summers add a moderate cooling load, at 761 cooling degree days. Sizing runs off the design temperature, not the average day: -9°F here (coldest 2024 reading -11°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 2.48 for the cold-climate class of unit this climate calls for. A cold-climate unit is the right call in DeForest, below 25°F design temperature, a standard heat pump leans hard on electric-resistance backup, which erases most of the savings. These numbers come from Dane Co Regional-Truax Field, the closest NOAA station, 6.1 miles out.
DeForest's running-cost comparison, in dollars
Electricity use for heating alone comes out to about 5,896 kWh a year on the 2000-square-foot reference house; folding in cooling puts the electric bill near $1,235 a year. That compares with roughly 60 Mcf a year of gas at DeForest's $10.74 per-Mcf rate, about $832 a year with the old AC included, against a local electricity rate of 18.87¢/kWh. Because the heat pump costs more to run here, the gap only widens with time: $11,545 behind after 15 years compared with replacing the furnace and AC like-for-like.
How sensitive DeForest's result is to prices
For the verdict in DeForest to flip, electricity would need to drop to about 11.6¢/kWh from 18.87¢, or gas climb past $17.44 per Mcf from $10.74. A utility offering a lower heat pump rate can change this. Until then, no quote price makes a heat pump pay back against gas in DeForest; the case for one here rests on comfort, cooling, or replacing electric heat instead.
The other scenario: no gas furnace to begin with
Gas isn't universal in DeForest, many houses run on electric heat already. Swap the comparison to resistance heat instead of gas, and DeForest's answer improves. About $1,710 a year comes back this way, enough that the 5.8-year payback clears the $10,000 premium comfortably within the equipment's life.
How DeForest compares nationally
Among 3206 cities, DeForest's winter puts it at rank 291 for severity, while its size puts it at rank 2775 for population, 1 in both cases being the extreme. That's the coldest third of the dataset, where climate does most of the work behind this figure.
What to do with this number in DeForest
DeForest, Wisconsin is home to about 12,260 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 DeForest, nothing is lost by holding off until the current equipment genuinely fails.
Ask a local HVAC contractor for a quote before committing either way.
Where DeForest's figure comes from
Every constant behind this page, the 2.48 seasonal COP, the degree-day corrections, the equipment costs, is documented in the methodology guide. DeForest's -9°F design temperature is below the 25°F line, which is why a cold-climate unit is the right call here, see what that changes in the cold-climate unit guide.