Heat pump vs. gas furnace in Duncan, OK

The payback math works in Duncan on paper, past the equipment's own working life. $3,500 is what Duncan 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 $224 of lower running costs every year, landing the payback clock at roughly 15.6 years. Duncan's own numbers say this pencils out only in theory, not in practice.

The climate behind Duncan's payback figure

Degree days tell the story here: Duncan racks up 2524 heating degree days each year (base 65°F), and summers are hot enough that cooling matters as much as heating, with 2376 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 11.1°F, against a record low of 3.9°F. That puts the seasonal coefficient of performance at 2.97 for the recommended cold-climate unit. Below the 25°F line where a standard machine starts leaning on resistance backup, Duncan sits firmly in cold-climate territory, so that's the class of unit priced here. Climate figures trace to the nearest NOAA station, HALLIBURTON FIELD AIRPORT, 0.9 miles from Duncan.

The month-to-month numbers for Duncan

Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 2,152 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $547 a year. The gas furnace it replaces burns roughly 26 Mcf a year at 13.99 per Mcf here, for a running cost near $771 a year (electricity here runs 13.10¢/kWh). Priced as a standalone purchase rather than against a like-for-like replacement, equipment payback runs about 60.3 years, for a 15-year net position $142 behind.

Electric resistance heat in Duncan, compared

Not every home in Duncan has gas service. 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 $693 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 11.5 years.

Where Duncan ranks in this dataset

Duncan lands at position 2164 out of 3206 cities on heating severity (coldest is 1), and 1703 out of 3206 by population size (biggest is 1). 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 Duncan

About 23,174 people live in Duncan, Oklahoma, 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.

Line up a few local HVAC quotes before you decide.

Where Duncan's figure comes from

Every constant behind this page — the 2.97 seasonal COP, the degree-day corrections, the equipment costs — is documented in the methodology guide. At a 11.1°F design temperature, Duncan sits in cold-climate territory; the guide to that class of unit explains why.