Heat Pump Payback in Farragut, TN
Should Farragut switch to a heat pump?
Farragut 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 $5,500. Farragut's residents would see roughly $109 a year back in running costs, putting the payback around 50.4 years. That's a technicality, not a recommendation, for anyone actually living in Farragut.
Not the city you meant?
This runs the same numbers for 3206 US cities, not just Farragut. Look one up here.
Farragut's weather, in the numbers that matter
3090 heating degree days pile up here every year, so Farragut has a real but manageable winter; the cooling side runs to 1623 cooling degree days, where summers are hot enough that cooling matters as much as heating. The 99% winter design temperature here, the cold snap equipment must be sized for, not the seasonal average, is 9°F, and the coldest daily reading in the 2024 station record was -2°F. That puts the seasonal coefficient of performance at 2.92 for the recommended cold-climate unit. A cold-climate unit is the right call in Farragut, below 25°F design temperature, a standard heat pump leans hard on electric-resistance backup, which erases most of the savings. Source: NOAA station Oak Ridge, 10.6 miles from Farragut, the closest one on record.
Farragut's running-cost comparison, in dollars
A 2000-square-foot house here would pull roughly 2,680 heating kilowatt-hours annually on top of cooling, totalling about $564 a year on electricity. Farragut's gas rate of $11.84 per Mcf, applied to the 32 Mcf a year the furnace burns, puts the current furnace-and-AC running cost near $673 a year, against 13.87¢ per kWh for electricity. If the current system still worked and you replaced it anyway, the full cost would take longer than the 15-year equipment life to earn back; against buying a new furnace and AC regardless, the 15-year total lands $3,862 behind.
What would change Farragut's answer
Gas would only overtake the heat pump in Farragut if electricity rose past 19.4¢/kWh from 13.87¢, or gas fell under $8.45 per Mcf from $11.84. A useful quote test for Farragut: the heat pump is worth it within a decade if it costs less than $1,090 more than replacing the furnace and AC, and within 7 years if the gap is under $763.
Electric resistance heat in Farragut, compared
Not every home in Farragut 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. The saving here runs about $813 a year, which recovers the extra $10,000 spent going electric in roughly 12.3 years.
Where Farragut ranks in this dataset
Farragut lands at position 1886 out of 3206 cities on heating severity (coldest is 1), and 1588 out of 3206 by population size (biggest is 1). That's the middle third for winter severity among the cities covered here.
Deciding what's next in Farragut, TN
Farragut, Tennessee is home to about 25,242 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 Farragut, 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 Farragut's figure comes from
The methodology guide walks through exactly how Farragut's 2.92 seasonal COP and the rest of this page's numbers get built. Farragut'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.