Is a heat pump worth it in Eagle Pass?
The math in Eagle Pass isn't close — a heat pump wins outright. Against a like-for-like gas furnace and AC swap, going electric costs $1,000 more up front here (already netting out a $2,000 tax credit). Lower bills claw that back: about $367 saved annually, for a payback of roughly 2.7 years. That verdict holds specifically for Eagle Pass's own climate and rates, not a national average.
Eagle Pass's weather, in the numbers that matter
687 heating degree days pile up here every year, so Eagle Pass barely has a winter to speak of; the cooling side runs to 4448 cooling degree days, where summers are severe enough that cooling can dominate the annual bill. The 99% winter design temperature here — the cold snap equipment must be sized for, not the seasonal average — is 30.2°F, against a record low of 21.2°F. That puts the seasonal coefficient of performance at 3.1 for the recommended standard unit. Eagle Pass's winters don't get cold enough to need the cold-climate premium — a standard unit holds up fine. Source: NOAA station FAITH RANCH AIRPORT, 43.9 miles from Eagle Pass — the closest one on record.
Eagle Pass's running-cost comparison, in dollars
A 2000-square-foot house here would pull roughly 561 heating kilowatt-hours annually on top of cooling, totalling about $703 a year on electricity. Eagle Pass's gas rate of 19.42 per Mcf, applied to the 7 Mcf a year the furnace burns, puts its running cost near $1,070 a year, against 16.15¢ per kWh for electricity. Priced as a standalone purchase rather than against a like-for-like replacement, equipment payback runs about 30 years, for a 15-year net position $4,502 ahead.
The other scenario: no gas furnace to begin with
Plenty of homes in Eagle Pass 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. The saving here runs about $509 a year, which recovers the extra $5,500 spent going electric in roughly 10.8 years.
Where Eagle Pass ranks in this dataset
Among 3206 cities, Eagle Pass's winter puts it at rank 2994 for severity, while its size puts it at rank 1394 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.
Next step for 28,768 people in Eagle Pass
Eagle Pass, Texas is home to about 28,768 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, Eagle Pass is a place worth lining up quotes ahead of a breakdown, not waiting for one.
Line up a few local HVAC quotes before you decide.
Reading further on this page's numbers
The methodology guide walks through exactly how Eagle Pass's 3.1 seasonal COP and the rest of this page's numbers get built. The $2,000 federal credit baked into Eagle Pass's number is explained, with the before-and-after math, in the tax credit guide.