Will a heat pump pay off in Franklin, OH?
Franklin technically pencils out, but only past the point the equipment would need replacing anyway. $3,500 is what Franklin would pay extra to go electric rather than replace the furnace and AC with the same again, once the $2,000 federal credit is applied. Franklin's residents would see roughly $8 a year back in running costs, putting the payback around 424.8 years. That's a technicality, not a recommendation, for anyone actually living in Franklin.
Franklin's weather, in the numbers that matter
4083 heating degree days pile up here every year, so Franklin has a real but manageable winter; the cooling side runs to 1300 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 3°F, against a record low of 3°F. That puts the seasonal coefficient of performance at 2.77 for the recommended cold-climate unit. Below the 25°F line where a standard machine starts leaning on resistance backup, Franklin sits firmly in cold-climate territory, so that's the class of unit priced here. Climate figures trace to the nearest NOAA station, DAYTON-WRIGHT BROTHERS APT, 4.6 miles from Franklin.
What it actually costs to run, year to year
Electricity use for heating alone comes out to about 3,732 kWh a year on the 2000-square-foot reference house; folding in cooling puts the electric bill near $891 a year. Franklin's gas rate of 13.85 per Mcf, applied to the 43 Mcf a year the furnace burns, puts its running cost near $899 a year, against 18.40¢ per kWh for electricity. Looked at as a full purchase rather than an incremental one, payback here is roughly 1638.5 years, leaving the 15-year total $3,376 behind.
Electric resistance heat in Franklin, compared
Not every home in Franklin has gas service. Swap the comparison to resistance heat instead of gas, and Franklin's answer improves. The saving here runs about $1,322 a year, which recovers the extra $8,000 spent going electric in roughly 6.1 years.
How Franklin compares nationally
Franklin lands at position 1468 out of 3206 cities on heating severity (coldest is 1), and 2852 out of 3206 by population size (biggest is 1). That's the middle third for winter severity among the cities covered here.
What to do with this number in Franklin
Franklin, Ohio is home to about 11,758 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 Franklin, 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 Franklin's figure comes from
Nothing above is a black box: the methodology guide shows the full arithmetic behind Franklin's 2.77 seasonal COP and payback figure. Franklin's 3°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.