Fremont, OH: the heat pump payback math

Here in Fremont, the honest answer is that a heat pump raises your annual running cost. $3,500 is what Fremont 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. The heat pump would cost about $2 more a year to run than the furnace it replaces — a premium with no payback. That's Fremont's own climate and rates talking, not a hedge or a caveat.

Fremont's weather, in the numbers that matter

Degree days tell the story here: Fremont racks up 3839 heating degree days each year (base 65°F), and summers are hot enough that cooling matters as much as heating, with 1071 cooling degree days on the cooling side. The 99% winter design temperature here — the cold snap equipment must be sized for, not the seasonal average — is 3.2°F, against a record low of -0.4°F. That puts the seasonal coefficient of performance at 2.78 for the recommended cold-climate unit. Fremont needs the cold-climate class of unit: past a 25°F design temperature a standard heat pump falls back on resistance backup often enough to eat the savings. These numbers come from CARL R KELLER FIELD AIRPORT, the closest NOAA station, 16.9 miles out.

What it actually costs to run, year to year

Electricity use for heating alone comes out to about 3,497 kWh a year on the 2000-square-foot reference house; folding in cooling puts the electric bill near $811 a year. Fremont's gas rate of 13.85 per Mcf, applied to the 40 Mcf a year the furnace burns, puts its running cost near $809 a year, against 18.40¢ per kWh for electricity. Priced as a standalone purchase rather than against a like-for-like replacement, equipment payback runs past the 15-year equipment life, for a 15-year net position $3,534 behind.

Electric resistance heat in Fremont, compared

Not every home in Fremont has gas service. Swap the comparison to resistance heat instead of gas, and Fremont's answer improves. Switching saves about $1,233 a year here — a heat pump moving heat rather than generating it needs far less electricity than resistance coils — so the extra $8,000 spent up front comes back in about 6.5 years.

Fremont against the rest of the country

Ranked against the other 3206 cities covered, Fremont comes in at 1617 for heating severity — 1 would be the coldest place in the dataset — and 2315 by population, where 1 is largest. That's the middle third for winter severity among the cities covered here.

Next step for 15,814 people in Fremont

Fremont, Ohio is home to about 15,814 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 Fremont, nothing is lost by holding off until the current equipment genuinely fails.

Line up a few local HVAC quotes before you decide.

Where Fremont's figure comes from

The methodology guide walks through exactly how Fremont's 2.78 seasonal COP and the rest of this page's numbers get built. Fremont's 3.2°F design temperature falls on the cold side of the 25°F cutoff the cold-climate unit guide walks through.