Is a heat pump worth it in Foley?
In Foley, a heat pump pays for itself within a reasonable window. Swap a failed furnace and AC for a heat pump rather than buying like-for-like, and the extra cost here runs $1,000 after a $2,000 federal tax credit. Lower bills claw that back: about $277 saved annually, for a payback of roughly 3.6 years. The window here is reasonable, and it's specific to what Foley actually pays for power and gas.
Foley's weather, in the numbers that matter
Foley barely has a winter to speak of — 1169 heating degree days a year against a 65°F base — and summers are severe enough that cooling can dominate the annual bill, at 3050 cooling degree days. 28.4°F is the figure equipment gets sized against here — the 99th-percentile cold snap, not an average day — with a record low of 19.4°F on file. Worked through the model, that's a seasonal COP of 3.05 on the standard unit fit for this climate. Foley's winters don't get cold enough to need the cold-climate premium — a standard unit holds up fine. Climate figures trace to the nearest NOAA station, JACK EDWARDS AIRPORT, 7.3 miles from Foley.
What it actually costs to run, year to year
A 2000-square-foot house here would pull roughly 971 heating kilowatt-hours annually on top of cooling, totalling about $594 a year on electricity. That compares with roughly 12 Mcf a year of gas at Foley's 17.56 per-Mcf rate — about $871 a year — against a local electricity rate of 16.62¢/kWh. Buy it outright, not incrementally, and payback stretches to 39.7 years; over 15 years the net position sits $3,159 ahead.
Electric resistance heat in Foley, compared
Plenty of homes in Foley 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 $555 a year, which recovers the extra $5,500 spent going electric in roughly 9.9 years.
How Foley compares nationally
Among 3206 cities, Foley's winter puts it at rank 2806 for severity, while its size puts it at rank 1425 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.
Deciding what's next in Foley, AL
Foley, Alabama is home to about 28,043 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, Foley is a place worth lining up quotes ahead of a breakdown, not waiting for one.
Ask a local HVAC contractor for a quote before committing either way.
Reading further on this page's numbers
The methodology guide walks through exactly how Foley's 3.05 seasonal COP and the rest of this page's numbers get built. The $2,000 federal credit baked into Foley's number is explained, with the before-and-after math, in the tax credit guide.