Heat Pump Payback in Farmington Hills, MI
Is a heat pump worth it in Farmington Hills?
In Farmington Hills, a heat pump would cost more to run each year than what you have now. $5,500 is what Farmington Hills would pay extra to go electric rather than replace the furnace and AC with the same again. Unfortunately the electric bill outweighs the gas bill it replaces by about $265 a year here, so the extra spend stays unrecovered. That's Farmington Hills's own climate and rates talking, not a hedge or a caveat.
Not the city you meant?
This runs the same numbers for 3206 US cities, not just Farmington Hills. Look one up here.
Farmington Hills's weather, in the numbers that matter
4971 heating degree days pile up here every year, so Farmington Hills has a real but manageable winter; the cooling side runs to 954 cooling degree days, where summers add a moderate cooling load. Sizing runs off the design temperature, not the average day: 5.9°F here (coldest 2024 reading -2.4°F), which works out to a seasonal COP of 2.84 for the cold-climate class of unit this climate calls for. Below the 25°F line where a standard machine starts leaning on resistance backup, Farmington Hills sits firmly in cold-climate territory, so that's the class of unit priced here. Climate figures trace to the nearest NOAA station, Oakland/Troy Airport, 10.8 miles from Farmington Hills.
What it actually costs to run, year to year
Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 4,432 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $1,087 a year. Farmington Hills's gas rate of $10.92 per Mcf, applied to the 52 Mcf a year the furnace burns, puts the current furnace-and-AC running cost near $822 a year, against 20.72¢ per kWh for electricity. Because the heat pump costs more to run here, the gap only widens with time: $9,480 behind after 15 years compared with replacing the furnace and AC like-for-like.
How sensitive Farmington Hills's result is to prices
For the verdict in Farmington Hills to flip, electricity would need to drop to about 14.1¢/kWh from 20.72¢, or gas climb past $16.05 per Mcf from $10.92. 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 Farmington Hills; the case for one here rests on comfort, cooling, or replacing electric heat instead.
If your home heats with electric baseboard instead of gas
Gas isn't universal in Farmington Hills, many houses run on electric heat already. Compared with baseboard or electric-furnace resistance heat, the numbers shift in the heat pump’s favor. The saving here runs about $1,777 a year, which recovers the extra $10,000 spent going electric in roughly 5.6 years.
Where Farmington Hills ranks in this dataset
Ranked against the other 3206 cities covered, Farmington Hills comes in at 750 for heating severity, 1 would be the coldest place in the dataset, and 432 by population, where 1 is largest. 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 Farmington Hills
Farmington Hills, Michigan is home to about 84,173 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 Farmington Hills, nothing is lost by holding off until the current equipment genuinely fails.
Get quotes from local HVAC contractors before deciding.
Where Farmington Hills's figure comes from
The methodology guide walks through exactly how Farmington Hills's 2.84 seasonal COP and the rest of this page's numbers get built. At a 5.9°F design temperature, Farmington Hills sits in cold-climate territory; the guide to that class of unit explains why.