Heat pump vs. gas furnace in Farmington, MO
Farmington technically pencils out, but only past the point the equipment would need replacing anyway. 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 $202 saved annually, for a payback of roughly 17.3 years. Farmington's own numbers say this pencils out only in theory, not in practice.
The climate behind Farmington's payback figure
3681 heating degree days pile up here every year, so Farmington has a real but manageable winter; the cooling side runs to 1210 cooling degree days, where summers are hot enough that cooling matters as much as heating. 1°F is the figure equipment gets sized against here — the 99th-percentile cold snap, not an average day — with a record low of -4°F on file. Worked through the model, that's a seasonal COP of 2.72 on the cold-climate unit fit for this climate. A cold-climate unit is the right call in Farmington — 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 FARMINGTON REGIONAL ARPT, the closest NOAA station, 1.5 miles out.
Farmington's running-cost comparison, in dollars
Modelled on a typical 2000-square-foot house, the heat pump draws about 3,427 kWh a year to keep it warm, plus cooling, for a combined electric bill near $572 a year. That compares with roughly 38 Mcf a year of gas at Farmington's 14.94 per-Mcf rate — about $774 a year — against a local electricity rate of 12.83¢/kWh. Looked at as a full purchase rather than an incremental one, payback here is roughly 66.9 years, leaving the 15-year total $471 behind.
The other scenario: no gas furnace to begin with
Plenty of homes in Farmington heat with electricity alone, no gas line involved. Compared with baseboard or electric-furnace resistance heat, the numbers shift in the heat pump’s favor. The saving here runs about $825 a year, which recovers the extra $8,000 spent going electric in roughly 9.7 years.
How Farmington compares nationally
Among 3206 cities, Farmington's winter puts it at rank 1691 for severity, while its size puts it at rank 1997 for population — 1 in both cases being the extreme. That's the middle third for winter severity among the cities covered here.
What to do with this number in Farmington
About 19,165 people live in Farmington, Missouri, 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.
Reading further on this page's numbers
Every constant behind this page — the 2.72 seasonal COP, the degree-day corrections, the equipment costs — is documented in the methodology guide. At a 1°F design temperature, Farmington sits in cold-climate territory; the guide to that class of unit explains why.